Australia have added yet another trophy to their cabinet after they comprehensively defeated West Indies in the tri-series final at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown on Sunday.
It was a collective effort from Australia, and they were duly rewarded with the sweet taste of victory.
Steven Smith won the toss and decided to bat first. Most of the Australia batsmen got off to starts, but they failed to convert them into a big score. They were losing wickets at regular intervals and at one stage they were at 173/6.
It was a wonderful effort from Matthew Wade that helped Australia reach a total of 270 at the end of their 50 overs. Wade remained unbeaten on 57 runs.
Johnson Charles took most of the strike in the first 15 overs, but he could not save the day. West Indies kept on losing wickets from the other end. Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Marsh ran riot with the ball as the duo shared eight wickets between them to demolish the West Indies batting order.
West Indies were all out for 212 runs, thereby falling short by 58 runs at the end of the match.
Smith was satisfied after lifting the tri-series trophy, but he was not too impressed with the kind of cricket his side played in the tournament.
"Very satisfying, we scraped incredibly well. 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. At 173 for 6, I thought we could pull off something like we did," Smith was quoted as saying by Cricinfo.
"I don't think we played our best cricket in this tournament, so we still have some work to do to get where we want to be. I'm just delighted to get over the line."
West Indies skipper Jason Holder, on the other hand, felt that they were not at their best and that too in the most important game of the tri-series.
"I felt we conceded 20-30 too many. We lost Shannon Gabriel as well, his overs at the end were crucial. With the bat, we fell away and didn't recover after a decent start. The wickets of Smith and Maxwell changed the game; credit to Shannon. lot of them didn't expect us to get this far, so credit to the group," Holder said after the match.
"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, Pollard coming back in, not just with bat or ball but in the dressing room, was a huge influence. So yes, it's been good for us. We've got two-three weeks before the first Test against India, so there's time to recover."
