No host team has ever won a T20 World Cup and the West Indian team in this season is hell-bent on breaking this record. The Windies batters are, especially, enjoying churning runs on their home ground. During the fixture against Afghanistan as well, the Windies batters took the bowlers to the cleaners. Leading this blitz was none other than Nicholas Pooran who went all guns blazing from the word go.
Winning the toss, Afghanistan asked the co-hosts to bat first, and boy did they do a good job. After Brandon King fell early, Johnson Charles and Nicholas Pooran took it upon themselves to thrash the life out of the bowlers. Pooran dispatched every ball towards the boundary without any discrimination. During a (panicked) Azmatullah Omarzai over, the Trinidadian cricketer accumulated 36 runs with three sixes and two fours, including a ginormous 89-meter maximum.
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As if high on Adrenaline, he even made hammering Rashid Khan look like a child’s play. The wicketless Rashid Khan returned to complete his quota of four overs after a decent recovery from his expensive first over. But the explosive Pooran had other plans. Making the lethal spinner look like an ordinary bowler, the West Indian batter scored 24 runs off that over with the help of three maximums and a four. He looked like he was on a mission to change the narrative about this edition of the mega-event.
Unfortunately, the 28-year-old batter could not get his score to the triple figures. While the idea of nervous nineties isn’t something Nicholas likes to entertain, he still became a victim of the ominous phase. During the last over, a bulls-eye, thunder-armed throw by Azmatullah Omarzai, who will surely savor the sweetness of vengeance for some time, outran Pooran as he attempted to squeeze in a double. The inning ended in a heartbreak for the batter, but the crowd as well as the Windies team owe him for the run galore that put Afghanistan in a tight spot.
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The West Indies team ended up setting a 219-run target for the Afghanistan team. This is only the third time a team has crossed the 200 mark during this edition. Interestingly, it is also the highest target posted by a team so far in this tourney. Though this match will not affect their position in the next stage, a little slogging exercise has never hurt anyone.
It merits mention here that the left-handed batter has been enjoying a purple patch since the start of this year, especially in franchise cricket. He amassed a whopping 499 runs in 14 games striking at a high 178 rate for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). Playing for MI Emirates during International League T20 (ILT20), he also followed the same script. He averaged more than 50 during the season with a 170-strike rate. Nicholas Pooran would be the main threat for the opposition in the team especially as more difficult matches loom. Rovman Powell would like to get used to seeing him plunder bowlers for fun like this in the upcoming matches as well.
