Port of Spain (Trinidad): Fifties by Nicholas Pooran and Rovman Powell helped West Indies outpunch a nine-man Australia by 35 runs in their warm-up match ahead of the T20 World Cup here.
As it happened in their first training match against Namibia, the Aussies fielded only nine players against the Windies. Selector George Bailey and head coach Andrew McDonald filled the remaining two spots while fielding.
Batting first, West Indies rode on fifties by Pooran (75 off 25 balls), skipper Powell (52 off 25 balls) and an unbeaten 47 off 18 balls by Sherfane Rutherford (47) to raise 257 for 4 in 20 overs.
In reply, Josh Inglis (55, 30b, 3x4, 4x6) led Australia's reply and there were a 39 (22b, 4x4, 2x6) by Ellis and numerous 20s as Australia finished at 222 for seven.
Earlier, Australia had Tim David, Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa, Nathan Ellis and Ashton Agar as bowlers, and all went for plenty. All-rounder Mitchell Marsh, recuperating from an injury, refrained from bowling, though he later batted. West Indies innings was built around fine partnerships between Pooran and Johnson Charles (40), who milked 90 runs for the second wicket and a 63 for the unbroken fifth wicket between Rutherford and Shimron Hetmyer (18).
The absence of skipper Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Cameron Green and Travis Head was felt as they are yet to join the squad. They are spending a few extra days at home after a taxing campaign in the recently concluded IPL. Namibia defeated Papua New Guinea by three runs under the DLS method.
Batting first, PNG were restricted to 109 for seven in 20 overs, and Namibia were 93 for six in 16.5 overs when the skies opened up in Tarouba. But they were three runs ahead in the DLS calculations at that stage.
At Dallas, the match between the Netherlands and Canada was abandoned without a ball being bowled.
Brief scores:
West Indies: 257/4 in 20 overs (Nicholas Pooran 75, Rovman Powell 52; Sherfane Rutherford 47 not out; Adam Zampa 2/62) beat Australia: 222/7 in 20 overs (Josh Inglis 55, Nathan Ellis 39; Gudakesh Motie 2/31) by 35 runs.
Papua New Guinea: 109/7 in 20 overs (See Bau 29; David Wiese 2/8, Ruben Trumplemann 2/15) lost to Namibia: 93/6 in 16.5 overs (Jan Frylinck 36, JP Kotze 30; Alei Nao 2/9, Assad Vala 2/14) by 3 runs (DLS).
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