The defining image from Nicholas Pooran’s power-packed innings at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium on Monday night came at its denouement: his batting partner Andre Russell letting out a cry of angst as Pooran remained on all fours with the timber in disarray courtesy of a direct hit from Azmatullah Omarzai, catching him short of his first T20I hundred by two runs!
The left-hander had whooped and run amok around the Afghanistan bowling attack for 52 balls, ripping out the bowlers on a batting paradise. Still, as Russell walked towards Pooran to give him a pat on the back, every West Indies fan probably felt the disappointment as viscerally as he did. By then, though, the result, a 104-run win in the final Group C match, had seemed like a foregone conclusion.
Chasing 219, Afghanistan was always playing catch-up once it slipped from 45 for one to 63 for five inside the first 10 overs. Obed McCoy (3 for 14), playing his first match of this World Cup, snapped up three wickets in the space of just eight balls to effectively nip the chase in the bud and ensure West Indies entered the Super 8s unbeaten. The precursor to the batting meltdown was left-arm orthodox spinner Akeal Hosein’s (2 for 21) wicket maiden in the first over, where he exploited a positive matchup to remove right-handed opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz for a duck.
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Earlier, after being asked to bat, West Indies impressed with a methodical dismantling of Afghanistan, starting by targeting in-form left-arm quick Fazalhaq Farooqi. Local hero Johnson Charles, with a stadium stand named after him, quickly hit multiple boundaries to the third man region, punishing Farooqi and his new-ball partner Omarzai for bowling wide. Rashid Khan’s decision to keep a deep backward point instead of a squarer third man allowed Charles to exploit the gap, leading to Farooqi’s removal after conceding 28 runs in two overs.
Omarzai, hit for two boundaries off his outswingers, bowled an inswinger that drew right-hander Brandon King into a half-hearted push, resulting in a wicket—the only highlight for Afghanistan in the PowerPlay.
Nicholas Pooran came in at three and straightaway capitalised on the lack of swing. Omarzai conceded 36 runs in his second over as Pooran raced to 27 off just nine balls, hitting five boundaries, including three sixes. It was the joint-most runs scored in an over in the T20 World Cup, after Yuvraj Singh’s six sixes against Stuart Broad in 2007.
Johnson Charles of West Indies in action against Afghanistan. | Photo Credit: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images
This forced Rashid into action inside the first six overs, which isn’t his forte. Pooran duly hit him for two fours, with Rashid conceding 12 in his first. The absence of Mujeeb Ur Rahman due to injury also played a role in Rashid’s early introduction.
By the end of the PowerPlay, Pooran was striking close to 300 and Charles at 200, as West Indies racked up 92 for one, the highest PowerPlay score in men’s T20 World Cups. Naveen-ul-Haq eventually ended the explosive 38-ball, 80-run partnership by dismissing Charles with a slower ball, for 43 off 27 balls.
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The scoring rate slowed a bit with Noor Ahmad introducing some control, with Pooran and Shai Hope content to run singles and twos. In fact, at one point, Pooran went without hitting a boundary for 27 balls!
But after Hope fell, Pooran picked up the pace again with skipper Rovman Powell. Pooran reached his first T20 World Cup half-century off 31 balls and then made a statement by smacking Rashid for 24 runs in the 18th over, with three sixes, one four, and a couple, leaving the Afghan skipper with figures of none for 45 from his four overs. By the time Powell skied a catch off a slower ball, he had added 64 off 38 with Pooran and taken the wind out of Afghanistan’s sails.
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