Australia win the 1st T20I against Windies in Canberra

Aaron Finch, Matthew Wade, and Josh Hazlewood helped Australia defeat West Indies in the 1st T20I of the 2-match series to go 1-0 up in the series. In fact, it was West Indies who fumbled on the field dropping two catches in the 20th over, when Australia needed 11 runs for victory, which helped the home team win this match with a ball to spare!

Image Credits: ESPN Cricinfo

Toss Update: Australia won the toss and opted to field first.

After being sent into bat first, West Indies scored 145 on the board losing 9 wickets in 20 overs. Kyle Mayers played a good knock with the bat as the opener with 39 runs while Odean Smith provided the late momentum with his 17-ball 27 batting down the order.

Josh Hazlewood was the Aussies' pick of the bowlers with 3 wickets from his 4 overs while Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc accounted for 2 wickets each while Adam Zampa also got a single wicket.

Australia, chasing 146 runs to win, managed to score 146 losing 7 wickets in 19.5 overs. Shockingly, Cameron Green who was not part of their T20 World Cup squad opened the batting alongside returning David Warner while Aaron Finch demoted himself to no. 4. This decision was the talking point since the toss throughout the match but it proved to be the right one as Finch got back to form scoring a 53-ball 58 including 6 fours.

Matthew Wade (39* off 29) once again remained unbeaten in this successful run-chase for Australia as they scored 11 runs off the final over to get over the line. In fact, Wade was dropped by debutant Raymon Riefer on the 2nd delivery while Starc (at the other end) was dropped on the 4th delivery by Kyle Mayers.

Match result: Australia defeated West Indies by a margin of 3 wickets.

Aaron Finch has been adjudged as the Player of the Match for his crucial contribution of 58 runs off 53 deliveries with 6 fours. The second and final T20I of this 2-match series will be played on Friday (Oct 07) in Brisbane.

Brief Scores: Australia: 146-7 in 19.5 overs (Aaron Finch - 58, Alzarri Joseph - 2-17) defeated West Indies: 145-9 in 20 overs (Kyle Mayers - 39, Josh Hazlewood - 3-35) by a margin of 3 wickets