Australia vs West Indies, 1st T20I at Carrara, AUS v WI, Oct 05 2022 - Match Result

So Australia take 1-0 lead in this two match series, which means they cannot lose. But I guess all that is secondary at the moment as all times are trying to fine-tune their combinations for the World Cup. Gnasher's report should be up soon. We will be back on Friday with the second T20I. Till then, take care. I will read some of your comments and add them before signing off.

Kamran: "Can we please also have a graph for the win predictor? So we can see where and by how much it changes (retrospectively)." --- We are working on it!

A stat from Sampath: Matthew Wade in T20I chases since Oct 2021: 5 innings, 166 runs, 0 dismissals, 161.16 strike rate.

Zaidi: "What a thriller, difficult to decide between Finchy and Hazlewood for man of the match. I think MOM should be Hazlewood for his early breakthroughs which help Aussies to restrict WI under 150." ---- You can always check our MVP list, which is almost our equivalent for Player of the Match. Our algorithm gave Hazlewood more points than Finch, but he was only third on our list.

Rayen: "Pity for Alzarri and Holder who bowled their hearts out. WI should seriously consider flying in Hetmyer who was the missing piece today. Reifer and Mayers literally gave away the match in both the innings. A tough lesson to take for the Windies" --- Not sure about Mayers, think he batted well to give West Indies a quick start. In an ideal world, Hetmyer would have been here tonight, no doubt.

ShahSafeer: "Odean Smith has tried his best to take his team over the line, he's done a good job at either side of their two innings. Cottrell has tried to make life easier for himself and his country but fielders did not let me him do that, it was quite an over! "

Aaron Finch is the Player of the Match: We were a bit sloppy in the field and with the bat. Lucky to get across the line. We just kept losing wickets. But Wadey the cool head in the end... It would have been nice to see the side through but we crossed the line in the end. [On Green opening] We would probably swap it in the next game. We want to tinker around and get all basis covered before the World Cup.

Nicholas Pooran: Defending 146, we had our chances but we messed it up. I am happy the guy came out, having Australia 54 for 5 but we didn't capitalise on key moments. Finchy and Wade played well. Kyle Mayers batted well, Cariah did well in his first game, Alzarri bowled well.

Time for the presentation ceremony.

10.00pm So, Starc and Australia eventually tumble over the line. It wasn't a daunting total, looked under par at the halfway stage but the West Indies bowlers showed great fight. Cottrell struck twice in the powerplay. Joseph, Holder and Cariah kept the pressure on through the middle overs. Smith bowled an excellent 19th overs, leaving 11 for Cottrell. But Wade hit his first ball for four to release the pressure. When he offered a chance, Reifer failed to grab it. And eventually, Starc knock off the winning runs off the penultimate ball. Wade once again demonstrated his finishing skills with an unbeaten 39 off 29 balls, and while it was a far from perfect batting effort from Australia, Finch's fifty is a big box ticked ahead of the World Cup.

Two needed from two

Seven needed off five

11 needed from the final over. Cottrell has got the bowl. There's a deep-backward square leg, deep midwicket, long-off, long-on and deep cover

A virtual free hit for Starc. Think Wade told him as much

Starc now. Australia need 13 off eight

smudgeon: "regardless of the outcome, this has been a very entertaining match. great taster for the world cup."

13 needed off nine now

15 required from 12 balls. Smith to bowl

Sriram: "Ever since Wade made a comeback into Aussie set up he has been batting at a different level, similar to what happened to Rizwan"

Just three from the over so far

Cummins now

Omor Faruq Adna: "Joseph, Holder, McCoy, Smith and Akeal not a bad bowling lineup."