Owen stars on debut to steer Australia to victory

Mitch Owen has crowned a dream debut for Australia with a blistering 26-ball half-century in his first knock for Australia to lead his country to a series-opening T20 win against the West Indies in Jamaica.

Owen's (50 off 27) first scoring shot in international cricket was as six off retiring veteran Andre Russell and he proceeded to hit five more to help Australia overhaul West Indies' 8-189 with seven balls to spare.

Cameron Green (51 off 26) also played a crucial hand with five sixes of his own in an 80-run fifth-wicket stand with Owen following Ben Dwarshuis' career-best 4-36 that had earlier put the brakes on the hosts' fast start after they were sent in by Aussie skipper Mitch Marsh.

Tasmanian allrounder Owen, fresh off a player-of-the-tournament campaign at Major League Cricket in the United States, also claimed a wicket with his third ball for Australia as he showed no signs nerves in his step up to international level.

The 23-year-old took on experienced spinner Akeal Hosein to ice the game, crashing the left-armer out of the ground with the ball nestling under a parked bus amid a 20-run over that yielded three sixes.

He perished the ball after hitting Alzarri Joseph for six to bring up his maiden fifty in his first innings, as Cooper Connolly (13) also fell in a nervy finish for Australia as Dwarshuis (5 not out) and Sean Abbott (5no) got them over the line by three wickets with five singles in the penultimate over.

Jason Holder was denied a chance to make it an even tighter finish when he had Abbott dropped at fine leg from the final ball of the 18th over with seven runs still required to win.

Jake Fraser-McGurk failed to make the most of his last-minute recall when Australia's chase began as his missed three of his first six balls faced before toe-ending an attempted pull off Holder to mid-off to be out for two off seven.

Marsh (24 off 17) launched Hosein onto the roof of the Kingston Cricket Club and then put Holder over the scoreboard but fell to Joseph's first ball trying to repeat the dose as he feathered an edge behind that was given out following a DRS referral.

Green started his innings with three sixes in the five balls following his skipper's departure to take the tourists to 2-64 after the six-over Powerplay, but West Indies seized the momentum when the field went back as Joseph was again in the action at fine leg when Josh Inglis (18 off 8) top edged a sweep shot.

Glenn Maxwell (11) came and went as his top edge also brought his downfall off Gudakesh Motie, but Owen's first scoring shot for Australia cleared the rope as he launched veteran Russell with horizontal bat over long off.

Roston Chase took out his frustrations from a tough initiation as Test captain over the past few weeks by slamming his fastest T20 half-century from just 25 balls after West Indies were sent in by Marsh.

Openers Brandon King (18 off 12) and Shai Hope (55 off 39), along with Chase (60 off 32), powered the hosts to 1-103 at the halfway mark before the wheels fell off at the death.

Dwarshuis (4-36) copped the treatment as he conceded 21 from his first two overs but responded with three wickets in four balls in the penultimate over of the innings to finish with career-best T20 international figures.

West Indies lost 6-30 to end their innings as they crashed from 2-159 to 8-189 from their 20 overs.

King, who was the Windies' shining light with the bat in his debut Test series that they lost 0-3, and white-ball skipper Hope gave the home side a rollicking start as they raced to 0-32 from the opening three overs.

Marsh swung the change straight away and left-arm spinner Connolly delivered with his maiden T20 wicket for Australia as King ran past a shorter delivery and was stumped by Inglis.

Chase exploded after managing only nine runs from his first 10 deliveries faced, as Connolly's second over cost him 15, with Zampa's second also expensive as the right-hander lofted him for a glorious straight six into the sight screen to take 12 off the over.

A clever assortment of ramps and precision touch through the off-side saw Chase take 16 runs from next Abbott (1-40) over – the 10th off the innings – with four boundaries behind that wicket.

He reached his third T20 international fifty immediately after the interval by slashing Nathan Ellis (1-31) over backward point to the fence to raise his bat in his second innings at No.3 after batting at eight in their previous match against Ireland last month.

Zampa (0-30) bounced back to concede just four in an excellent 12th over of the innings and Dwarshuis was rewarded with his first of the night as Chase holed out to Maxwell at long on.

Hope took over after his departure, greeting Maxwell's first ball of the evening by belting him over the new Sabina Park scoreboard – which had its official unveiling before the match – and onto the road.

The Windies skipper celebrated his half-century from his 37th ball faced by smashing Zampa back over his head for six as Owen too was welcomed to international cricket with a six as Shimron Hetmyer (38 off 19) clipped his first ball over the fine leg fence.

But the pain was short lived for the Aussie debutant as he claimed his maiden wicket with his third ball with the crucial breakthrough of Hope who spooned a wide slower ball to point.

That brought the innings grinding to a halt as crowd favourite Russell – in his second last match for the West Indies in front of his Jamaican home fans – only managed eight off nine balls after hitting a tracer-bullet six that had barely got above head height when it clattered into the fence at deep square leg.

Russell, Sherfane Rutherford (0) and Jason Holder (0) all fell in the space of four balls in the 19th over to Dwarshuis before Ellis rounded off a terrific fight back to dismiss Hetmyer in a four-run final over, making it four wickets in seven balls to hold the hosts to 8-189.

West Indies XI: Brandon King, Shai Hope (c, wk), Roston Chase, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, Andre Russell, Jason Holder, Gudakesh Motie, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph

 

Australia XI: Mitch Marsh (c), Jake Fraser-McGurk, Josh Inglis (wk), Cameron Green, Glenn Maxwell, Mitch Owen, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa

Qantas Tour of the West Indies

First T20I: Australia won by three wickets

Second T20I: July 22, Kingston, Jamaica (July 23, 10am AEST)

Third T20I: July 25, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 26, 9am AEST)

Fourth T20I: July 26, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 27, 9am AEST)

Fifth T20I: July 28, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 29, 9am AEST)

West Indies T20 squad: Shai Hope (c), Jewel Andrew, Jediah Blades, Roston Chase, Matthew Forde (St Kitts only), Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Evin Lewis, Gudakesh Motie, Rovman Powell, Andre Russell (Kingston only), Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd

Australia's T20 squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshius, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Mitch Owen, Adam Zampa