West Indies fall to Australia in opener

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC):

West Indies began their campaign in the International Masters Cricket (IMC) Over-40s World Cup with a crushing 88-run loss to Australia in the opening match of the tournament here on Saturday.

Playing at Providence National Stadium, Australia posted a competitive 266 for five in their 45 overs.

The Aussies were led by opener Ryan Broad, who scored 58 off 76 balls, while Glen Batticciotto and Greg Hunt both made 48 and captain Steve Paulsen 45.

Broad and Batticciotto shared an opening stand of 94 in 19 overs before the former was stumped by Denesh Ramdin off the bowling of Imran Khan.

They looked set to post a mammoth total after being comfortably placed at 200 for three in the 36th over, but the Windies did well to restrict them to their eventual total.

Khan was the pick of the bowlers with 2-36 from his nine overs.

Paulsen then returned to grab five wickets to help bowl out the home side for 178 in 40.1 overs.

The West Indies were never really in the run chase after losing four early wickets to slump to 52 for four in the 15th over.

Antonnel Atwell, who made, 28 and Ramdin, who top-scored with 31 off 55 balls, tried to repair the damage during a 55-run partnership for the fifth wicket.

However, once Atwell was bowled by Paulsen, the innings crumbled despite an unbeaten 26 by Khan and Larry Babb’s cameo of 21 off 16 balls.

Paulsen finished with the impressive figures of 5-41, while Mark Cleary took 2-33.

The West Indies will take on South Africa in their second match on Tuesday at the same venue.

In other results from Saturday’s opening day, South Africa edged Canada by two wickets, England thrashed the USA by 134 runs, and Pakistan trounced a Rest of the Caribbean side by nine wickets.