West Indies put on six-fest to floor Zimbabwe

The last time they played a fixture in India, Zimbabwe were knocked out of the T20 World Cup even before the eventual champions West Indies played their first game of the tournament. And now on Monday (February 23), the Men in Maroon showcased Zimbabwe what they 'missed out' on back then by putting on a show reminiscent of their 2016 heroics.

Boundaries were cleared with ease on 19 different occasions - a joint World Cup record. The highest total - 254/6 - of the ongoing edition was posted, which also happens to be the second highest total ever in the tournament's history. In the end, Zimbabwe suffered a mammoth 107-run loss at the Wankhede stadium to go down in their first Super Eights fixture.

The return to India turned out to be a harrowing experience for a side that made headlines throughout the group stages of the tournament. The moment Zimbabwe's progression was confirmed, adapting from Sri Lanka's slower pitches to India's better batting surfaces was always going to be their biggest challenge. And they found out the hard way when Shimron Hetmyer and Rovman Powell put on a six-fest that essentially killed the contest in the first half of the fixture.

Things could have been probably different had Tashinga Musekiwa held on to a chance from Hetmyer when he was batting on just 9. But it wasn't to be for a side that doesn't often play under the lights. Given the margin of defeat, one has to wonder if it would have made a difference to the final result anyway.

Zimbabwe appeared to have made a decent start when Brandon King's poor run continued. Shai Hope then departed before the end of the powerplay in which West Indies made 55 runs. But the real carnage was yet to arrive. Hetmyer took charge against spin as Graeme Cremer was smashed for back-to-back sixes. Even the ever-reliable Sikandar Raza wasn't spared as Hetmyer cleared the ropes three times off the Zimbabwe skipper. Those five sixes came in the space of six deliveries as he brought up a stunning 19-ball fifty. Raza's efforts to stage a strong comeback in his second over proved futile as Hetmyer continued his manic hitting.

At the halfway mark, West Indies had 115 on the board and when Cremer extracted turn to pose some problems to Rovman Powell, the possibility of a second half fightback did rear its head. But all those were put to rest immediately by Powell who now took over from Hetmyer. If the left-hander took the spinners to the cleaners, Powell was efficient against pace, tonking the ball with disdain to bring up his own half-century. By the time Brian Bennett took another fine catch on the night to finally end the century stand, the damage was done. The carnage didn't stop though as the final five overs saw the likes of Jason Holder, Sherfane Rutherford and Romario Shepherd chip in with more sixes to push the total well beyond the realms of possibility for Zimbabwe.

The writing was then on the wall when the West Indies came back to strike thrice in the first 16 deliveries. One of those strikes saw Akeal Hosein beat Bennett fair and square. The moment West Indies went past 200, it was always going to be difficult for Zimbabwe's young opener to hold on to his proud record of not getting dismissed in the tournament. Three balls after his dimissal, Ryan Burl found the fielder. From 20/3, Zimbabwe did pretty decent to claw their way out of the mess. Dion Myers came up with timely boundaries and Raza caught up despite taking eight balls to get off the mark.

At the halfway mark, Zimbabwe dragged themselves to 87/4 but any hopes of batting out the overs and limiting the NRR damage was put to rest when Gudakesh Motie struck twice in two deliveries. He added one more in his final over to finish with a four-wicket haul. In one final act that gave Zimbabwe some cheer on a gloomy evening, Evans put on a show by smashing five sixes in the space of 10 balls before becoming the 10th victim. Given the margin of defeat, the implications of this result will likely have a far wider reach than just hurting Zimbabwe's chances. India will now have to dent Zimbabwe further and hope South Africa pull off a favour on the same day by ending West Indies' unbeaten run in the competition.

Brief scores: West Indies 254/6 in 20 overs (Shimron Hetmyer 85, Rovman Powell 59; Blessing Muzarabani 2/42) beat Zimbabwe 147 in 17.4 overs (Dion Myers 28; Gudakesh Motie 4/28, Akeal Hosein 3/28) by 107 runs