West Indies 196 for 4 (Hetmyer 61, Bravo 47*) beat Australia 140 (Marsh 54, Walsh Jr 3-29) by 56 runs
The scintillating century partnership between Shimron Hetmyer and Dwayne Bravo was the cornerstone of West Indies' impressive performance as they went 2-0 up against Australia.
After winning from the jaws of defeat 24 hours earlier, West Indies' victory this time felt far more secure when they played a scintillating 196-run knock and removed Australia's openers cheaply.
Hetmyer, who was given a vote of confidence by injured captain Kieron Pollard ahead of the series, found the ideal balance between hitting boundaries and keeping the scoreboard ticking as he reached a career-best and just his second T20I fifty. Bravo, ahead of Andre Russell and Nicholas Pooran, when West Indies were three down within 10 overs, batted at his highest position and scored his highest international score for five years, although two lives were given.
The fourth-wicket stand of 103 was West Indies' best in T20Is, with Russell then finalizing the innings. There were 13 sixes (and just eight fours) in the innings but what would make the captain and the coaching staff happy was how the strike was also rotated. West Indies scored 123 runs in the second 10 overs.
Mitchell Marsh scored his second successive half-century and West Indies lost their attack to injury to Fidel Edwards, but the asking rate spiraled out of control. In the end Australia fell into a pile while running the second night.
Pressure grows on Gayle
There is no debate about what Chris Gayle has achieved in his career, but batting seems to be quite a painful affair for him right now. He has 102 runs in nine innings since his return to the side against Sri Lanka and his 13 balls in today's 16 balls did not indicate a return to flow. Throughout his career he has given many examples of eating dot balls but swinging an innings with such force that it doesn't matter, but he is not getting out of the starting block at the moment. On this occasion he ended up dragging against Marsh in the eighth over, leaving West Indies precarious at 59 for 3, but that may have been the best thing for the innings.
Surprised to see Bravo walk out at number 5 but it proved to be a masterstroke, although Australia had a chance to remove him. Adam Zampa missed a low catch-and-ball opportunity when he had 2 and Dan Christian made good ground for a chance at long-off when Bravo had 15 but it was out. That second chance came in the 12th over to propel through the stand still gears and Bravo's run-a-ball performance was in danger of being polarized. But in the 13th over, both he and Hetmyer cleared the ropes against Ashton Agar and from there the innings never looked back. Hetmyer hit the ball beautifully and played himself calmly in his innings, scoring a 29-ball half-century with an audacious six against Mitchell Starc, whose last two overs were 30 on another difficult night. There were 14, 15, 16 and 16 runs in the last four overs of the innings and Russell ended it strongly.
It was worth noting that after eight overs, both the teams scored 59 for 3 wickets, but from there both the innings went on quite different paths. Australia were set back by early defeats from both openers - Matthew Wade pulled the second ball to mid-on and Aaron Finch flared up with a slow delivery from Edwards - then missed by a straight delivery from Josh Philip Hayden Walsh Junior Marsh's innings, who could not go earlier, was also ended by Walsh, who took six wickets in two matches, which started another flurry of wickets. The gist of Australia's situation came to the fore when both Christian and Agar were left on the big screen to see who was run out when both ended up on the same end.