Alex Carey made a statement in his debut as Australia ODI captain with a thumping 133 run victory over West Indies in the first ODI played on Tuesday, 20 July.
Josh Phillipe and Ben McDermott who made their debuts gave Australia a decent start after winning the toss. However, the team was struggling at 114/4. It was then that skipper Alex Carey joined hands with Ashton Turner to stitch together a century partnership and that took Australia over 250 on a tough pitch.
In reply, West Indies were reduced to 27/6 within the powerplay. Player of the Match Mitchell Starc picked 5 wickets and along with Josh Hazelwood wrecked the West Indies top order. Captain Pollard scored a half-century as the lone warrior for West Indies who were eventually bowled out for 123.
Alex Carey was a happy skipper and lauded the team’s performance. He admitted that Ashton Turner made batting look easier on the tough surface.
“Yeah, it was (special). Not only for me but the three other guys on debut. Obviously, the two quicks up front were pretty special as well. I wouldn't say I made it look easy (the pitch), maybe Ashton did. We won the toss and we batted and I thought the wicket might've played a little different to what it did,” Carey admitted in the post-match interview.
He was delighted with the way his team adapted and dominated the powerplay while bowling.
“For us to adapt and put on the score on the board which we thought was competitive, and then the way the powerplay went for us was fantastic. Ashton played a crucial role. Probably haven't seen a powerplay like that before. When they get it right we know how damaging they are. For them to rock up tonight, show Wes Agar on debut how it's done was pretty special,” he said.
Mitchell Starc was under pressure after a poor start to the tour. He had gone for over 10 runs an over without a wicket in the first to T20Is. The left-arm pacer put everything behind and returned an impressive figure of 5/48 in eight overs. He said that 252 was a good total on the pitch as there was a variable bounce.
“It was a special day, we had three debutants. I thought we did a fantastic job getting to 252. A pretty good all-around performance from the group today. We thought there was variable bounce, but a little bit of swing earlier on helped us. My role is similar throughout the white-ball format. He (Alex Carey) was pretty calm and collective, it was nice to get a win on his captaincy debut,” Starc said after receiving the Player of the Match award.
(Inputs: SportsCafe)
