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Australia’s young batter Mitchell Owen had a dream international debut as the right-handed batter played spectacularly in the first T20 International (T20I) between the West Indies and the Aussie side played at the Sabina Park, Kingston. Playing his maiden match, he came to bat at number six and played a match-winning knock of 50 off 27 from his bat. Riding on his innings, the visitors chased down the target of 190 with three wickets left and seven balls in hand. Australia, after the dominating Test series triumph in the ongoing tour, are also ahead by 1-0 in a five-match T20I series.
Owen’s batting brilliance also made him the player of the match (POTM). His knock also made him the third Australian after Ricky Ponting and David Warner to notch up a half-century on T20I debut. During the match, Owen also bowled an over in which he splurged 14 runs and picked up the crucial scalp of the Windies captain Shai Hope. Following the match, Owen revealed he got very nervous after Shimron Hetmyer hammered him for a maximum. "I thought I was on 36 off the over there when he smacked me for six first ball, but I was lucky Shai hit one up the shoot and got my first wicket. I was pretty nervous running in those first six balls, but nice to get it out of the way," said Owen.
Australia will look to win second T20I and build more pressure on hosts
Australia are riding high on confidence and they will look to create more problems for the home side. West Indies, after getting whitewashed in the three-match Test series, are receiving criticism for their underwhelming performances. In the T20I series, their fans are expecting them to deliver solid shows.
In the second innings of the third Test against the Aussies, the Windies team got bundled out on 27 and following the disastrous performance, Cricket West Indies (CWI) President Dr Kishore Shallow calling an emergency and held talks with three iconic Caribbean batters of all time Sir Vivian Richards, Brian Lara, and Sir Clive Lloyd.
