West Indies posted 254 in Mumbai on Monday night – even at the Wankhede, that is hefty – and still had to defend it. They managed, thanks mainly to their two left-arm spinners. Akeal Hosein finished with 3 for 28, Gudakesh Motie 4 for 28, and Zimbabwe were kept to 198 for 8. Job done, points secured, yet nobody in the West Indies camp is getting ahead of themselves.
“I think tactically they were smart. Akeal Hosein, throwing the ball to him for someone like Bennett, not having seen him before, and that was an absolute beauty,” Faf du Plessis said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut programme after the game. The ball in question drifted in, dipped, then bit, shaving the top of off stump. Bennett never looked close to it.
Du Plessis wasn’t finished. “You normally don’t associate him beating the bat on the outside. He normally beats you on the inside quite often,” he added. “So when a ball spins and bounces like that, it shows you it’s a quality ball. The way he started the innings… they are two very different spinners. One is a powerplay… almost like a Badree, brilliant in the powerplay, and Motie comes in after six and he just shuts the game down.”
The numbers back him up. Hosein bowled three of his four overs inside the powerplay – the first six overs when only two fielders are allowed outside the circle – and pocketed the wickets of Brian Bennett and Ryan Burl while conceding just 21 runs. His third over was a maiden, rare in a chase of 255. Motie arrived immediately after the restrictions lifted, removed Dion Myers first ball, then came the big moment. Facing Sikandar Raza, Zimbabwe’s engine room, he slid one through slightly slower, the ball gripped on the red soil, and kissed the top of off. Two balls later Tashinga Musekiwa went the same way. By the time Tony Munyonga paddled a maiden in Motie’s next over, Zimbabwe’s chase was running on fumes.
“I am not sure the wicket changed much from the first to the second innings. But just looking at the pace that Akeal Hosein was bowling at, and Motie, there was a little bit of… just above the eyeline for the ball to have time to spin, and you look at someone like Sikandar Raza, he bowled very, very quickly, trying to bowl defensive,” du Plessis observed. Hosein and Motie combined for 7 for 56; Raza’s own three overs leaked 52.
None of this obscures the hitting that set the game up. Shimron Hetmyer’s 85 off 34, Rovman Powell’s 59 off 35 and Sherfane Rutherford’s quick 31 were brutal, yes, but they were also measured. Hetmyer, especially, waited for the slower balls and used the short square boundaries. Zimbabwe’s bowlers weren’t wayward – the margin for error simply vanished.
Yet, as du Plessis warned, the real assessment is still to come. South Africa and India await later in the Super Eight stage. Those batting line-ups will treat 150-plus targets as routine, let alone 250. Both sides also boast right-hand heavy top orders, meaning Hosein and Motie might have to adjust their lines. The pair hardly bowled a googly or carrom-ball on Monday; they may need a variation or two when the margin tightens.
West Indies supporters can reasonably celebrate – this was polished, almost clinical. But a note of caution feels appropriate. Bowling out Zimbabwe is one thing. Containing Virat Kohli or Quinton de Kock in a must-win encounter is quite another. Monday night proved Hosein and Motie can dominate when conditions suit. The question, and it is a good one, is whether they can adapt when they don’t.
