Australia creates history against West Indies

The Australia men’s cricket team created history on Tuesday (July 29) by becoming the first team in the world to win a five-match T20I series against a Test-playing nation with a scoreline of 5-0. The 2021 T20 World Cup winners faced the West Indies in a five-match T20I series from July 21 to 29 and, under the leadership of Mitchell Marsh, won all five games.

In the past on multiple occasions, teams have won bilateral T20I series against a Test-playing nation with a scoreline of 4-1, but no team before Australia managed to secure five outright wins in a 5-match T20I series against any Test-playing nation.

The first-ever T20I match was played between New Zealand and Australia in Auckland on February 17, 2005, and the first-ever five-match T20I bilateral series was played between New Zealand and England in November 2019.

In January-February 2020, India defeated New Zealand 5-0 in the five-match T20I series played in New Zealand, but in that series, India won the third and fourth T20Is in the super over.

For Australia in the five-match T20I series against the West Indies, Tim David (37-ball century in 3rd T20I), Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Owen (fifty on T20I debut), Josh Inglis, and Cameron Green impressed with their batting performances, and the likes of Ben Dwarshuis, Adam Zampa, and Nathan Ellis made headlines for their bowling performances.

In the fifth and final T20I of the series played on Monday (Tuesday IST), the Aussies bowled the West Indies team out for 170 in 19.4 overs. Apart from Shimron Hetmyer (52 runs from 31 balls), other West Indies batters failed to do much with the bat, and three of them were sent back to the pavilion by Dwarshuis, who conceded 41 runs in his quota of four overs.