On the grass, Nicholas Pooran was lying prone. With two balls remained in the West Indies innings, his full-stretch dive onto his front would have been enough to take him to 99 not out. Instead, his body fell under the direct shot of Azmatullah Omarzai from the deep extra boundary. Coach Daren Sammy placed his hands on his head in the dugout as the audience fell hushed.
But the airhorns began to blare again as Pooran eventually stood up, dusting the dry mud from his clothing. Pooran finally made it to the T20 World Cup with an innings of 98 off 53 balls, even though he was two runs shy of his first T20I century. It was the greatest score of the competition thus far, and it was an inning that showed off a batter who is starting to reach his prime.
Pooran is playing in his third T20 World Cup, and his record coming into this cool, windy night in St Lucia did not reflect his skill: 194 runs in 11 innings, with his lone meaningful performance coming in a fast 40 against Bangladesh in Sharjah. Under his leadership, the West Indies experienced their worst-ever campaign in 2022, losing to Ireland, Scotland, and Zimbabwe in a first-round group.
He scored 27 runs off of just 19 balls against Papua New Guinea and 22 off of 19 against Uganda to start this World Cup. Before they played New Zealand, it was enough to warrant a harsh editorial in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian: “Too often though, Pooran becomes overconfident and a bit arrogant and gives away his wicket.” Maybe his home-grown 12-ball 17 against New Zealand validated their point.
However, the hitters from the West Indies had been anticipating their arrival in St Lucia for a while, and Pooran demonstrated why. The surface was hard and level, providing spinners with some opportunity, and his evaluation of the conditions was accurate. He went into the middle overs of his innings in fifth gear, slid back into second, and then hit the accelerator at the end.
When Pooran faced Omarzai, he had already faced two balls. What came next was one of the most vicious attacks on a bowler by a batter in World Cup history. Outside-edging the first ball for six over the short third boundary, he forcefully pushed the second ball through midwicket on his front foot, a no-ball. Omarzai had bowled a single legal ball, costing him sixteen runs, when his bouncer soared over the keeper’s head for five wides.
When Pooran’s stumps were struck by an inch-perfect yorker on the free knock, he grinned miserably at square-leg umpire Allahuddien Paleker, who replaced the bails. The following four balls cost twenty, including a straight six onto the sightscreen, a hard draw into the Johnson Charles Stand, four leg byes, and a slice over point. The over came to thirty-six, which felt like a recovery in a way.
After the powerplay, Pooran relaxed off entirely. In his opening over, he struck Rashid Khan for two boundaries: one over long-off and the other a wristy late cut. He saw right away that Noor Ahmad posed the most threat to Afghanistan; in the IPL, he had dismissed him twice in eight balls and was obviously having difficulty reading his variations. He took his medication, hitting nine of Noor’s fourteen balls that he encountered.
Pooran clarified, “Noor Ahmad has bowled well to me in the past.” “Some people could criticize me for not applying more pressure to him, but in T20, you also need to be shrewd because you can’t bat at a 180 strike rate for an entire innings. That is simply not how things operate. I continue to believe that we must respect both the opposition and the game in order to play it well.”
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