 Welcome back to the Sports Mac zone. We're bowling things off with cricket. Australia continued their winning streak over the West Indies across formats taking the first T20 international in Hobart by 11 runs and that giving them a one in lead in the three match series. Of course this match was shown live on Sports Mac started about three o'clock four o'clock Eastern Caribbean time this morning. Well the other way around but a competitive showing Ricardo by this West Indies team and they could have won. Of course they could have won Lance which is exactly what you expect from a team that has the quality to go on and win the T20 World Cup this year. I expected nothing less from the Caribbean side that it would be competitive against any team in T20 cricket. I think this is the best West Indies T20 side that is out there at the moment. You could have an argument or two about a change or two but overall the squad is as close as you are going to get to a full strength West Indies side. And I have said that I think this side has the quality to go all the way at the World Cup. No I also made the point yesterday regarding the size of the fields in Australia and I was in I mean I was really interested to see how the bigger grounds would impact on the West Indies batting performance especially and if you look at a number of the batsmen at least three of them I think getting caught on the boundary edge and I'm thinking anywhere in the Caribbean and those are going for six and you have a completely different contest. I think the adjustments will be made because I think this team has that type of quality but I'm not too bothered by what happens on this Australia tour in this three years because for me regardless of what happens this team will still have the quality to do extremely well at the World Cup later on this year. I can't say I disagree with you on that here's Donald Oliver though with a story of that contest. David Warner in his 100 T20 international alongside Josh Englis who was opening for the first time in T20s. They both put the windows to the snow. Captain Rossi's reached to 77 without loss. Tough chance in the semifinal to get Warner. Nicholas Puran the neighbours come up with a catch. Warner brought up a 50 of just 22 points. Just to start with absolute class David Warner match 100 50 number 25 of just 22 deliveries. Then yet another chance this one for Englis. Brandon King with a great effort. That didn't cost the wind as much though. West Indy saw to tighten the screws as Alzari Joseph helped with two big wickets in the 13th over. And then Warner for top score of 70. Joseph ended with 6. From 138 for 3 the Aussies produced 75 of the last 7 overs to reach a record equal in 213 for 8 at the value over. Tim David finishing well with a 17 for 7. Andre Russell taking 3 of the last 4 wickets to be the pick of the Windy's bowlers with 3 for 42. Massive chase for the West Indies as Brandon King and Johnson Charles went right to work. And Brandon of 89. Charles raised to 42 of just 25 balls before Stoines had him caught in the deep. King well he got to his 50. But the right-hander fell shortly after. West Indies 102 and very much in the chase. But wickets kept falling at the record interval. She hope 16. And Andre Russell 1 The big hitters were going 1 by 1 which meant the Caribbean team would get a little momentum. And although Jason Holder finished well with 34. The visitors fell 11 runs short. Finishing at 202 for 8 as Australia went one up in the 3 match series. And how pleased are you with that win that the West Indies gave you a scare? Yeah, we respect them a lot they're a great T-20 team. Where do you think it went wrong for you? I think just in the middle we struggled to get partnerships. Majority of our power butters didn't get off. Game 2 will be played in Adelaide on Sunday morning Caribbean time. Starting 3 o'clock to make time for ECT. So the Aussies taking a won the lead in the series. You can catch a ball of the series live on Sportsmax and following the match our cricket commentator and analyst Nikhil Utamchandani posted the following on X formerly known as Twitter. He said West Indies will take a lot of positives from the first T-20 international restricting Australia to 213 after they were won in 10 overs. Also the 89 run opening stand and they only lost by 11 runs in the end. There are a few moments in the game where they could have been smarter and this game would have been won. Nikhil joins us now on Zoom. Nikhil, welcome to the Sportsmax zone. Always great to have you on. Well, let me start by the areas that you suggested that you thought they could have been smarter specifically. Yeah, great to be back. I think what a game to this morning is taking out that early to watch. What I would say in terms of those areas to be smart and I think it as Ricardo said it is a great test for that work up because for me I think that work up is going to come down to moments. When the West Indies plays against teams like Afghanistan, New Zealand and their group and even goes further T-20 cricket is going to come down to those fine and small margins but those moments particularly I thought a few times I heard Ricardo mention the big boundary size. I thought he would be living with the way he got out. It was to the much bigger side of the ground and heading into the breeze and in Adam Zampa's last over I thought that was the big threat and the game deciding over and he got two wickets and then the West Indies really struggled where they lost five wickets in just 20 deliveries but had poor answer to have seen that out I think we all saw the amount of depth and also the power that the West Indies have I think they could have got over the line with his presence so I was kind of disappointed that he decided to take on Zampa I'm trying to take on the big boundary and hit into the wind was caught on the boundary and then a few others as well were also caught trying to take on that bigger side of the ground so I think that's one area they're looked to and then I think some of the bowling choices by Robyn Powell and look hindsight is 2020 I completely understand why Robyn Powell gave Akilo saying two in the power plate he always does it but I felt it was kind of a risk because you've got a left handed David Warner there who obviously with the ball spinning in will be very favored the first over was good and the second one went for 17 and it's always hard to go back to that over it's in 2020 cricket and then in the power plate so I thought there were a few times where the West Indies will probably look back on and say we could have done things differently and the result could have been different but all in all a lot of positive to take. What's your take on how well both teams started their innings the Aussies were blazing at the top of their innings as did the West Indies when they started the run chess. Yeah Australia is that type of sort of on those decks with that hard new ball it is so good for batting that the ball will come on even better so you see even when guys are taking pace off the ball it's not really gripping there's no real change off this pitch whereas you compare that to the Caribbean where the ball can grip prodigiously it's quite a different challenge so I think that's why it really suited someone like a Johnson Charles who hits through the line of the ball really consistently targets the leg side and I think that's why he got away and that's why he said the 89 run opening with the West Indies took on that chase and I think it shows how much they believe in the depth that they have it was funny because I heard some of the commentators were questioning when Shepard and Holder were batting there they needed 54 from 20 and they were quite content to just get a few singles as they began that partnership and they sort of questioned the intent but I think I knew that they wanted to take it to the last over and in the end 11 runs is two sixes so it shows that they believe even with bat times coming at 11 they believe that they can gun down anything probably would have liked to chase 190 but it just shows to me the way that they're going about things how much they believe in that depth that they possess yeah and I'm very happy that you spoke about the depth Nikhil by the way I was hoping that you would come with another line of reasoning today so I could disagree with you but not a lot that I can disagree with at this point but the depth that you spoke about do you suspect that's part of the reason why even someone like a Nicholas Puran would feel as if he can take on the best Australian bowler even against the large side of the ground because there is a thinking that even if I get out there is enough quality behind me that can push to get this total yeah I think it's two reasons Ricardo one is that I think they're not afraid to sort of anchor the innings or no one feels like they need to sort of stick in because of how much batting they have and he got 16 from A but I also say credit to Australia as well because Puran was 18 from 16 deliveries before he got out so they actually bowled well to conserve him and sort of frustrate him of finding the boundary we all see Nicholas Puran how much he likes to find the boundary early in his innings to get him going so I thought they bowled really well to him just to continue to feed in the singles get him off strike and it frustrated him the only reason why I would sort of think Puran would be disappointed with that is because it was the last over and we've all seen how much of a threat he has been with that Australian bowling lane and he's been their bestie 20 bowling out for the last three years so just because it was his last over on that pitch I would have rather probably see him out and again hindsight is 2020 but I think in hindsight they would look back and say if we had just seen all that over maybe got seven or eight from it we would have then had five overs of strictly seen which we would have won and the rest could have really taken down we would have won the game so that's why I think you'll be disappointed taking on the big boundary against their best bowler. Yeah a small concern for me and it has to do with the bowling especially in the power play in the first 10 overs against England late last year we saw some issues with that we were able to pull things back in the first T20 international but we saw after that where the England batsman really got going especially in those first 10 overs and I wonder if they're well I wonder what the solution is because I am concerned that it is becoming a little bit too consistent now where the first 10 overs are going for too much. Yeah I think the power play Ricardo and Rob Napal has really liked to use this trend where he goes to bat over so you saw that in ball two at times he's gone just and hold the two in the power play we didn't see a Mario Shepherd feature in the first six but if you look and when I analyze some of the other teams around the world very rarely are you seeing guys bow back to back overs in the power play simply because listen in T20 cricket the quality of the batters now they line you up so if you've got a guy bowling six balls at you from one end and then you go back to that end and he bows again at you they sort of can play with Hossain so I wonder if that's something and he likes doing it but I wonder if that's something that he can sort of think about refining we didn't see Shepherd bow the new ball maybe give him an over but I like when you mention at the beginning of the show that the result is that's important will we see Rustin Chase feature at least once in this series we didn't see him in the England series and I think maybe it's worth having an option of the ball spinning the other way that's all I'm saying Ricardo I don't know why I think survey the options let's see what else we have you know before I say what I really want to say I don't want the Caribbean to get this wrong it's not that I don't think Rustin Chase is a good cricketer I think Rustin Chase is being pushed in the wrong format of the game and I will say no more on that that's just how I feel about it I don't think Rustin Chase is a T20 cricketer I'm not even sure he's a 50 over cricketer definitely not when I beat him at number six I don't know what there seems to be this massive push to have him play limited over his cricket when I think his best format is test cricket and that now unfortunately as far as I am concerned seems a thing of the past but I'll leave that there it's interesting that you speak about bowling the back to back overs right Nikhil because the captain Robyn Powell the reason he gave for why he didn't bowl a second over he bowled one over for six runs was a very good over and he said part of why he didn't bowl again was because on these decks against this type of quality you don't want to be bowling back to back over so there is a recognition on his part at least when it comes to his bowling that this is something you don't necessarily want to be doing. Yeah I must say Ricardo one thing about you you're sharp you always are listening and nothing goes past you but what else I also heard that and I think he was sort of suggesting for his bowling that he didn't sort of believe that someone with a lot less pace than maybe Azari Joseph or Russell could bowl the back to back overs but I wonder and the second T20 international will be telling but it's tough because Akhil Hosein has done the major successes come with that new ball when he gets the ball to drift into the left hander or away from the left hander he's giving Hosein that new ball and look Hosein bowed an outstanding 15th over they went for just seven runs that could have easily gone the other way so we have to give credit where it's true but I completely understand what he's doing however I just stopped with a left hander at the crease and David Warner who is firing it is a huge risk to have the ball spinning back into him on that ground and that's why I felt the back to back overs was sort of risky so that's what I'm hearing you would find a way quick last one how important was it for Brandon King and Johnson Charles to get some runs especially when you consider that a lot of the firepower the real firepower is in the middle but when you can start like that and if you can consistently do that it's good for the team going forward. Yeah absolutely massive I think for Brandon King he is sort of the resident opener one in and this is what we expect of him we've seen in the last series but this sort of dominance where he's so aggressive in the offside but also when they both straight to him he can score with that pull which he's been enhancing and working on but Johnson Charles now I think this is a really interesting situation because we've obviously had Kyle Meyers as the incumbent opener in the England series Sammy brought in Charles for the last couple of games he played then he starts the series now so they at times he wants to go with Charles or will we get to see Kyle Meyers come back in for maybe a game or two to also make his case it's interesting because Kyle Meyers can also ball over to the public with the new ball and get it to swing so keep an eye on that folks at home whether sort of Johnson Charles is retained and plays these next two matches it could be a clear indication that he will start at the work up but he was fantastic and again these pitches will really suit him he was this he destroyed many into by a couple weeks ago yeah Nikhil we have to leave it there but I'll say this sure Finn Rutherford has to watch his place as well because if you really want to bring back Kyle Meyers he could open Johnson Charles could drop down at three or the other way around so a lot of options for Darren Sammy and the selectors and so all these players have to be on the alert and ensure that they continue to perform or else you can easily be out of this team because as far as I'm concerned it's a high quality team Nikhil will be chatting again after the second T20 international which will be on Sunday no show on Sunday but I'm sure we'll have a chat on Monday take care. Alright Ricardo you rest up man keep being sharp Nikhil Utamchandani let's go to our break we'll be back with more on the sports mic zone