Jediah Blades briefly threatened to be the hero with an outstanding spell of 3 for 29 but West Indies’ fielding once again let them down
Alex Malcolm26-Jul-2025Another composed unbeaten half-century from Cameron Green and some stunning hitting and catching from Glenn Maxwell helped Australia post a fourth straight win over a deflated West Indies in Basseterre.Green made an unbeaten 55 from 35 to steer Australia home to a target of 206 with three wickets and four balls to spare following a middle-order collapse. The chase had earlier been set up by 51 off 30 from Josh Inglis while Player-of-the-Match Maxwell smashed 47 off 18 at the top of the order. Second-gamer Jediah Blades briefly threatened to be the hero with an outstanding spell of 3 for 29 but West Indies’ fielding once again let them down.Related
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Australia, by contrast, were flawless in the field with Maxwell taking two catches and combining with Green to complete a stunning catch on the rope to back up an excellent bowling performance. With Ben Dwarshuis and Tim David rested, Aaron Hardie and Xavier Bartlett grabbed their chance, taking 2 for 24 and 2 for 39 respectively, including three powerplay wickets to restrict West Indies. Nathan Ellis was sensational again bowling four overs for 21 runs while Adam Zampa and Sean Abbott also took five wickets between them.West Indies became the first team in T20I history to score 200 without anyone scoring more than 34, with Sherfane Rutherford top-scoring with 31.Bartlett and Hardie take powerplay wicketsAs well as Australia have bowled in this series, they had only taken one powerplay wicket in the first three games. The selection of Bartlett and Hardie changed that. Both men had success with hard lengths rather than swing up front. Bartlett cramped both Brandon King and Shai Hope on consecutive deliveries in different overs while Hardie benefitted from Maxwell’s superb catching at mid-on. Having caught Hope diving forward on the circle, he casually stretched up with the one hand to pluck a Roston Chase drive off Hardie.Jediah Blades struck crucial blows•Randy Brooks/AFP via Getty Images
West Indies kept hitting despite the regular loss of wickets. Rutherford, Rovman Powell and Shimron Hetmyer clubbed six sixes and seven fours between them. But none of them passed 31 as they all holed out with miscues. Mitchell Owen continued Australia’s fine catching with a brilliant diving effort running in from deep backward point to remove Hetmyer. When Powell holed out to hand Hardie his second, West Indies were 119 for 6 after 11.1.Mind-blowing Maxwell changes the gameShepherd and Jason Holder were unperturbed by the scoreboard. Shepherd’s hitting showed he could well be used as a full-fledged allrounder in this West Indies line-up. He mixed power and touch to maul Abbott. He lifted West Indies beyond 150 before the end of the 15th over but his dismissal summed up the difference between the two sides.Maxwell not only robbed Shepherd of a certain six but he ended his innings with the same stunning act. Shepherd clubbed Zampa flat to long-on and it looked to have easily cleared Maxwell. But he defied gravity and logic to jump as high as he could at full stretch to catch it with two hands and land on his left leg, which is still full of hardware from his fracture in 2022, before flicking it back to the waiting Green while momentum carried him over the rope. Maxwell’s two catches on the scorecard will be an unjust historical record of his contribution to the match.Australia’s death bowling was superb again, conceding just 41 from the final five overs which took an additional 55 minutes to complete due to a long rain delay between Ellis’ second ball of the final over and his third.Inglis and Maxwell cause déjà vuThere was a brief moment when West Indies’ fortunes defending a total might have taken a different turn. Blades found swing first up and pinned Mitchell Marsh lbw second ball. Marsh’s decision not to review it despite ball-tracking showing it pitched outside leg might have been the luck West Indies needed.Early swing for Blades and Holder saw a circumspect Australia score just 12 off the first two overs. But as soon as the swing disappeared, déjà vu set in. Inglis smashed seven boundaries in the next 11 balls. He added a four and a six off Matthew Forde’s first over of the series to raise a 50-run stand with Maxwell who contributed one run. Inglis reached his 50 off 28 balls and ended up facing 29 balls in the powerplay before holing out to deep square off a full toss outside leg.The lack of strike did not concern Maxwell nor did the field spreading outside the powerplay. He launched six sixes in typical Maxwell style, including three in three balls, to put Australia miles ahead of the required rate and briefly threatened to match Tim David’s record for the fastest T20I fifty by an Australian less than 24 hours after it was set as Australia cruised to 129 for 2 after 10.It’s the hope that kills youA Maxwell miscue off Akeal Hosein sparked a collapse and gave West Indies a chance at victory. Blades loomed as the unlikely hero. He made Owen miscue to deep cover point and Cooper Connolly to mis-hit one to mid-off in the space of three balls. He then had Hardie dropped twice in two balls, with Shai Hope spilling a catch down the leg side before Blades failed to grasp a return offering himself.But Green held his nerve to post his third half-century of the series. Every time West Indies bowlers threatened to close out a boundary-free over, he cleared the rope to ease the pressure. He reached his 50 off 30 balls with the required rate well under a run-a-ball despite Australia being six down. He offered a chance late with 11 to win, but Rutherford dropped a catch at deep midwicket to continue West Indies’ nightmare series.