The West Indies cricket team made a spectacular start in the T20 World Cup Super 8s, defeating the Zimbabwe national cricket team by 107 runs.
In the match played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, the Windies dominated in every department and reached the top of the Group 1 points table.
254 Storm, Zimbabwe Completely Helpless
Winning the toss, Zimbabwe chose to bowl first, but this decision backfired. The West Indies batsmen played aggressively from the start. Shimron Hetmyer made the biggest impact. He smashed 85 runs in just 34 balls. His half-century came in just 19 balls.
Hetmyer had an easy catch early on, but it was dropped. He took full advantage of it and changed the course of the match. Along with him, Rovman Powell played a quickfire innings of 59 runs in 35 balls. The two formed a quick partnership, taking the score past 250.
In the end, Sherfane Rutherford returned unbeaten on 31. 38 runs came in the last two overs, propelling the team to a mammoth total of 254/6 in 20 overs. This is the second-highest total in T20 World Cup history.
Chasing 255, Zimbabwe had a disastrous start. They were reduced to 20/3 in just three overs. The pressure continued to mount.
Windies’ bowling performance also increased, increasing India’s tension
For Zimbabwe, Brad Evans showed some fight, scoring 43 runs off 21 balls, but the rest of the batsmen failed to hold on. The team was all out for 147 in 17.4 overs.
In bowling, Gudakesh Motie took four wickets, while Akeal Hosein took three. Both spinners completely destroyed the match in the middle overs.
With this win, West Indies’ net run rate has increased to +5.350, the best in the group. South Africa is in second place, while the Indian national cricket team is currently in third place with an NRR of -3.800.
Only the top two teams from the Super 8s will advance to the semi-finals, so net run rate could be a major factor.
