By: Tarish Bhatt
A telling knock from Matthew Wade helped Australia in winning the triseries. The Australian captain Steve Smith was pleased with the way his team ‘scraped’ to the title in Barbados.
Wade helped the Aussies in setting a competitive total at the Kensington Oval. Later, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Marsh rattled the West Indies to set a clinical win in the triseries final.
“Very satisfying, we scraped incredibly well,” Steve Smith said. “We were in trouble at one point, but Matthew Wade and the tail gave us 270, which allowed the bowlers to hit good areas and create chances.”
Meanwhile, Windies captain, Jason Holder was also pleased with his team’s performance. The West Indies fought tooth and nail with the likes of Australia and South Africa to reach the final.
The Windies skipper also pointed out the addition of senior players, who eventually helped them in being competitive. Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine were added into the Windies team for the series.
“A lot of them didn’t expect us to get this far, so credit to the group,” Holder said. “Improvement is the name of the game. We need to keep building ahead and move ahead in the rankings.”
“Among the positives, we got two hundreds from Samuels and Bravo,” he added. “Pollard coming back in, not just with bat or ball but in the dressing room, was a huge influence.”