Windies vs World XI, One-off T20I Review: Caribbeans crush the all-star side in a grandiose way

It was a contest many expected to go down the wire, but as it turned out, the Windies managed to humiliate the World XI side led by Shahid Afridi. It was a catastrophic outing for the Pakistani legend and his side as the men from the Caribbean Islands displayed why they’re rated as the best T20 side in the world.

Afridi earlier in the beautiful London evening won the toss and elected to bowl first. The devastating duo of Evin Lewis and Chris Gayle came out to bat for the Windies and they gave the side a solid start. Whilst Gayle took an awful lot of time to find his feet, Lewis continued his purple patch and stroked a few boundaries.

Gayle failed to impress the huge crowd at The Lord’s but Lewis covered up his abysmal batting. With 5 fours and 5 sixes, he completed a brilliant half-century and was eyeing for a big score. But the man with the golden arm, Rashid Khan came into the act and picked up his wicket, trapping him leg-before.

The only phase of the game where the Windies looked a little pale was when Andre Fletcher and Gayle were in the middle. They struggled to time the ball and runs didn’t come as thick and fast as they would’ve expected. Once both these players fell in a succession of 7 balls, the Windies middle order took the onus upon themselves to deliver a huge total.

It all began with some scintillating strokeplay from the veteran Marlon Samuels. Denesh Ramdin joined the act and after a fairly long time, he looked pretty decent with the bat. This duo added 52 runs in no time and even clobbered the likes of Rashid Khan.

Andre Russell gave a fitting finish to the innings, propelling their side to 199 for the loss of four wickets. Rashid Khan returned with a brace but gave away a whopping 48 runs. Afridi, in what should be his final International appearance, picked up a wicket and gave away 34 runs.

A lackluster show from the All-star XI

Samuel Badree bowled brilliantly with the new ball, giving absolutely nothing away. Whilst Andre Russell picked up the first wicket of Tamim Iqbal in the second over, Badree sent Luke Ronchi and Dinesh Karthik back in the 3rd over. Sam Billings too got dismissed in the next over to Russell, gifting their side the most callous start possible.

Windies bowlers reduced them to 8/4 inside 5 overs, a dream start for any team no matter what they’re defending. Out of the blue and against the run of play, Thisara Perera played an absolute blinder to keep World XI in the hunt. His innings did earn some respectability to the scorecard.

Afridi and Shoaib Malik did assist the Sri Lankan for some time, but most of the batters failed to stick around for a long period. Perera completed his fifty, but the required rate crept up to unattainable standards before the 16th over commenced. In an audacious attempt to get as close as possible Perera lost his wicket and the rest was a formality.

Tymal Mills didn’t come out to bat for the World XI after suffering a hamstring injury whilst fielding. Kesrick Williams picked up 3 wickets in the death and the World XI side got bundled out for 127 runs in 16.4 overs. It was a gigantic 72-run victory for the Caribbean lads and showed the world that this is their format.

Brief Scores

Windies XI: 199/4 in 20 overs (Evin Lewis 58, Denesh Ramdin 44, Marlon Samuels 43; Rashid Khan 2/48)

World XI: 127/10 in 16.4 overs (Thisara Perera 61; Kesrick Williams 3/42, Samuel Badree 2/4, Andre Russell 2/25)

Player of the match: Evin Lewis