Riding on a sensational display of spin bowling by Hayden Walsh Jr, West Indies managed to register a sensational come from behind victory against the Aussies in the opening T20I to go 1-0 up in the five-match series.
The leggie who bagged three crucial wickets of Mitchell Marsh, Dan Christian and Ben McDermott rated this performance very highly and placed this performance at 1 or 2 at the international level.
Walsh had tested positive for COVID-19 in Bangladesh and had a pretty mediocre season with the ball in the Super50 tournament. However, his performance earlier today will definitely make him a prime contender for a spot in the T20 World Cup slated to be played in UAE later this year.
"Personally, it's a sigh of relief," Walsh said after spinning his team to a memorable victory. "I've been preparing for a long while. After my mishap in Bangladesh where I tested positive for Covid, I didn't really have a good Super50 and I'm really happy that I'm just back. I would put this performance up there, probably one or two."
Walsh who was playing an international game after a substantial gap was introduced into the attack a bit late than expected by stand-in skipper Nicholas Pooran.
However it worked wonders for his team as after conceding 10 runs in the first over, Walsh Jr was all over the Aussie middle order like a rash and from a commanding position, Australia slipped to a position of relative discomfort.
The leggie along with left-arm pacer Obed McCoy ran through the Australian lower middle order and the tail bagging the last 6 wickets for just 19 runs to bowl Windies to a dramatic victory.
"To come in when the pressure is on and Australia could have walked the game at that point, I really enjoyed changing the game there," he said. "In the team meetings we talked about the huge wind factor. I just really enjoyed just reading the conditions and reading the situation of the game,” W alsh concluded.
The 2nd encounter is slated to be played at Darren Sammy National Stadium in St Lucia tomorrow (Sunday).