 We're cutting, hooking and even Dilshan scoping our way into this Monday edition of the Sports Max zone and we're continuing with cricket. West Indies will be looking to end their three match T20 series against Australia early Tuesday morning Caribbean time with a win to avoid being whitewashed. The win days are down 2-0 following their 34 run loss in Sunday second T20 in Adelaide. Glenn Maxwell blasted an unbeaten 120 from 55 deliveries to lift the hosts to a mammoth 4 for 241 of their 20 overs before Marcus Stoines with 3 for 36 and two wickets each for Josh Hazelwood and Spencer Johnson took Australia to the win despite a well-played 36 balls 6-3 from the captain Robyn Powell. As 2-1 series is better than 3 love and the guys are still confident the guys are still upbeat that we can beat this Australia team but it's gonna take a greater effort from each and every one of us. That's what I tell myself in a tennis match all the time 2-1 is better than 3 love when you're down yeah well said Robyn Powell let's get the thoughts of Nikhil Uttamchandani as he joins us via Zoom. Nikhil who are you doing on this fine Monday afternoon. Yeah great Ricardo I'm enjoying your comedy man I tell you you're a man of many talents to deal school the tennis matches keep it up man I'm enjoying entertainment. Well let's talk about the West Indies I'm not sure how much you enjoyed the performance on Sunday I certainly did to be quite honest it was another really good cricket match West Indies finishing on the losing end but assess this performance especially in comparison to what we saw in the first T20 and specifically as well the first T20 the ballers got the second half of the Australia innings right in the second T20 they got the first half right but not the second. Yeah Ricardo I think talking improvements there were some from that first T20 we spoke at length about the back to backovers in the power play Robyn Powell went away from that so he obviously learned and made the adjustment and you look at the two power players in that first game they conceded 77 runs in the second one 58 but they crucially took two wickets they bowled really well to Warner frustrated him obviously controlled him I would say in the power play which is an extremely hard thing to do and then batting wise I would say in both games it's been a real positive that someone has been able to take the game deep but not only take the game deep but be aggressive as well first game Brandon King second game captain Robyn Powell with that 63 I think what that knock showed me and even then Maxwell is not because he was 10 from 10 and then obviously scored a hundred from his next one 90 from his next 40 deliveries it showed that even though you're chasing 240 or you're trying to get to 240 you actually have more time than you think so you can actually spend 5 to 10 deliveries just to get in and then you really launch on what are some unbelievably good surfaces for batting so I think look there's a lot of positives to take from these two games there are some areas which need big improvement but I'm sure we'll adjust that during the segment yeah before we get to some of those areas that need big improvement I want to talk about the point that you just mentioned just in terms of having more time even though you are chasing a massive total and I'm extremely happy that you brought up the the the case of Robyn Powell because when Robyn Powell came to the wicket you could see a deliberate attempt to get himself in to work the ball around and pick up singles to play with as little risk as possible however that was not the case with the top five or six where Brandon King, Johnson Charles, Nicholas Puran, Shay Hope unfortunately just came out blazing and instead of well I would think maybe a hundred for two after ten overs you are a hundred for five and that changes the course of the game did the top order get it wrong is the question I'm asking now I wouldn't say that Ricardo because 240 is an extremely menacing total which obviously the westernies will know for a sound what is required to chase somebody like that think back to South Africa last year when they posted that 258 and then Quentin the cop gunned it down so you really have to go firing from ball one however I think like we spoke about in the first the 20 international moments so I don't fault them for being aggressive but I do think they can sort of just pick their moments a bit better guys like Shay Hope and Puran for those two especially I think the quality is so immense when they're at the crease against all bowling types and the ability against spin as well I think that's what the westernies have missed just how well they can attack Adam Zampa not having them stay at the crease for a while which is pretty much the reason that they're playing in that 11 mainly for that reason to attack the spin I think that has kind of hurt the westernies because then you're exposing Robin Powell, Russell Shepherd guys that I would say like spin is probably they're not their strength so I think for that reason maybe those two guys especially but I think when you're chasing 240 it is extremely hard to sort of take it easy for the first time deliveries I went power came to the crease the game was almost pretty much gone so I thought he was trying to save some face and then realize hold on a minute at 50 he realized we could actually get this so there'll be learnings but again 240 is extremely monstrous so yeah they had to go let me see if I can explain myself in a different way by utilizing some examples so one of the things I was disappointed with the first three or four overs I think only one batsman faced those deliveries so for example you had Brandon King swinging swinging swinging swinging missing missing missing missing and at no point did he try to just get off strike and say to Johnson Charles maybe you will do a better job at this then there were a couple of other overs where they got a six and a four at the start of the over so that with Nicholas Perran and then four dot balls so it was more about understanding one rotating the strike is important especially when you've gotten off to a good start but also not getting yourself into a situation where one baller is consistently able to bowl six deliveries at one batsman especially you would think after they had worked them out and I think I saw that just a little bit too often in those first six overs and it's an area I think that can be improved yeah I agree with that I thought you were mainly addressing the intent but I think and Ian Bishop always speaks about it how can you maximize more deliveries so not necessarily a dot ball percentage or dots but just how can you score off of as many deliveries as possible and you look at the best teams in the world Australia Pakistan are very good at it India of course they are able to score off of so many deliveries so that even when they're not getting the boundaries they're able still to get you know you hit one boundary but you still get 10 or 12 off the over which in the grand context of the game becomes significant so I think when they look back on that chase they'll say if we were smart in a few moments and even that brandy king example in the first to 20 international he was going rhythm everything was perfect second one not so much so can he have that sort of awareness to say well John at the other end is going really well let me just get off strike similar to what Stoines and Maxwell did many people look at that partnership and say well 16 from 15 from stoneness not great however you look at Maxwell at the other end and the partnership as a whole it was excellent just for that situation and the awareness of the game situation as well. Yeah Nikhil outside of Azari Joseph who has two test 50s and five first class 50s every batsman on the West Indies current T20 team well that played so far have scored hundreds in high level cricket if only list a cricket how much do you consider this a benefit to this West Indies team because at the face of it they really have batting down to 11. No it's a massive benefit Lance I think it's a benefit that puts them right up there as a favorite for the World Cup however I think the bowling must be rectified must be improved upon if they're to have any chance but on the batting I think it's so strong you have someone like Jason older who in the two games has scored 62 runs from 31 balls batting at nine that's a strike rate of 200 if you have him coming at nine Akhil Hossain we've seen play a few cameos at the international level and Joseph as you mentioned if you've got that much depth I think you can sacrifice one of those batters or even one of those all-rounders but probably batters because you're trying to get an extra bowling option in so I think in West Indian conditions when that World Cup comes around I could easily see Gurukesh Morty Akhil Hossain starting together it may have to come at the expense of a sure pain rather for just because I think it is very important to have some variety with a six bowling option and they have enough depth to do it Jason holder has batted at three for the West Indies I think back to 2021 in that Sri Lanka series so he's more than careful at number nine and we said that already so I definitely think that depth is a big plus but I think we make we could be using it a bit better and need to get an extra bowling option yeah we've discussed on the show before Nikhil that winning these matches against the Aussies isn't the ultimate for the coaching staff as we prepare for the T20 World Cup and that's perfectly understandable having said that the Aussies may be very more than satisfied with how things are going for them because they are rotating players and we get word now that this young 21 year old Jake Fraser McGurk who has played two ODIs exciting attacking batsmen made debut in T20s tonight so the Aussies seem to have their program on track as well yeah they're honestly I think they're such a good outfit and you talk about bilateral series but it's the tournaments where they really come alive the key thing about them to remember is that this bowling attack is without Pat Cummins without Mitchell Starr who will certainly start in their T20 World Cup 11 and they are able to have so much depth but I think develop a culture of winning which they want to win these bilateral series even though they're wrestling guys so I think probably teams two teams at different stages but the australia side have just built a formula where you've got guys expensive Johnson coming in playing a few matches but I think they understand how much competition there is for places where you have to do well even to have a just a knock on the door whereas for the westernies this group of 14 or 15 guys is pretty much set going into that T20 World Cup barring a few changes so they're just culturally ahead and I think they're a big tournament team so watch out for them at this T20 World Cup because their start is a favorite for sure yeah Nikhil I want you to go a little bit deeper into the West Indies bowling wars especially with what has happened over the last 12 months or so in terms of the scoring rate against them yeah Ricard I think the biggest area of improvement and I want to start by saying Darren Sami and the selection panel have got it right when it comes to the personnel I believe this is the personnel to execute this but you look at this graphic um the westernies in terms of the last five overs have considered the third most in the world and it's an area where it continues to sort of bite them you saw in that last T20 they considered 58 off the last three that's the difference between 240 and maybe 210 if you if you can see 40 from the last three so I think it's going to come down to Darren Sami getting his bowlers ready for that workup the key thing is execution as I said Polter Joseph Shepherd etc I believe they're the best men for the job however how can we mold this bowling lineup into a way where we can execute and find our best execution at the back end of the innings whether that be the wide yorker the straight yorker I just feel the execution has just been missing at critical times in that england series in that australia series that we're experiencing now and I think that is the only thing that is separating south africa australia india who for me I think are top three favorites for that T20 workup and them but home advantage is a big plus I think that would certainly boost them the death bowling if they can get that right come four months time I don't think there are many teams that can beat this west indies side just because of that batting pedigree but also the match winners that they have yeah it's interesting because when I looked at that graphic um nikhil the thing that jumped out at me um was the teams at the lower end of that graphic meaning that they are doing best in the death bowling regard Afghanistan and New Zealand both of them are in the same group as the west indies for the T20 world cup this summer yeah and I would also say to guy people will look at us and say we're not australias above the west indies remember that it's not really their strongest bowling lineup they wrote it a lot same in south africa we've only played six matches New Zealand however have kept a pretty tight core with guys like Trent bowl uh mitch satna and and their bowling lineup and they've done really well away from home as well so I think then will be a serious threat for the west indies and Afghanistan bowl a lot of spin in the last five and we know we've had our walls against spin you catch Afghanistan and Guyana or Trinidad good luck honestly good luck yeah by the way would you make any changes for the third T20 on tuesday morning yeah uh rosson cheers just kidding I would like to see good a catch morty uh good a catch morty come in for sure I think he's quality and let's get that more of playing the two spinners together going into that world cup so i want to change our maker's morty in for other food yeah for some reason I I don't think you were really joking but I'm not going to take you on on that um we're going to invite you to kingston one of these days um nickill for a cricket match and let's see if you have the ability to turn the ball away um from anybody okay I look forward to that man I'm just a little scared of kingston but other than that I once I have some security I'll come down we'll ensure you're okay young man don't worry you'll be perfectly fine it's time to take a break on the sports mic so I don't really know how else to respond to that it's break time