Shimron Hetmyer guides West Indies to a dominant victory over Zimbabwe.
The left-hander scored a blistering 85 off 34 balls as Zimbabwe dropped him twice early on in his innings.
The West Indies are one of the dark horses to make the final of the T20 World Cup.
Shimron Hetmyer smashes a rapid-fire 85 runs
Having lost the toss and being put into bat, Shimron Hetmyer was quickly out to bat as Brandon King was dismissed in the 3rd over. Despite this, Hetmyer went on the attack as he pummelled the Zimbabwe bowlers with a series of powerful strokes. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza was running out of options as he constantly rotated his bowlers to attempt to dismiss the left-hander.
As well as this, the West Indian batter was dropped twice by Tashinga Musekiwa on 9 and 70, which added to Zimbabwe’s pain. Furthermore, as Hetmyer was causing chaos at one end, Rovman Powell at the other end batted patiently as he also brought up a half-century. Late cameos from Jason Holder and Romario Shepard propelled the Windies to 254-6 off their twenty overs. Zimbabwe then collapsed to 147, with Brad Evans top-scoring with 43. Windies secured victory by a mammoth 107 runs
It has been a complicated journey for Hetmyer in International cricket, with the media spotlight on him from a young age. This led the ICC to brand him as cricket’s breakout star in 2018. Since then, Hetmyer has generally struggled on the international stage, with a series of low scores, and has been dropped several times or overlooked by the West Indies. Early in his career, Shimron Hetmyer was deployed as a lower-order power hitter, arguably the most difficult job in cricket, as he was expected to score meaningful runs at the death. However, in the past year, the Guyanese has found himself batting at number three, which has been tremendously successful. It has allowed Hetmyer to utilise the batting powerplay to settle in, then capitalise on the field.
Could West Indies win the World Cup?
In short, yes. The West Indies are stacked with power hitters in their batting line-up with King, Hetmyer, Powell, and Shai Hope. As well as this, the all-round trio of Shepard, Holder, Rutherford, and Forde gave the Windies the extra batting depth. The bowling is built on speed, with Shamar Joseph, and on the spin of Akeal Hosein and Motie. Arguably, the West Indies have the most balanced and destructive team in this year’s World Cup. History is on their side as well, as the West Indies did win the T20 World Cup in 2016 and knocked out India in the semi-final that year.
However, with the Windies set to face both South Africa and India in their final group games, it will be tough to make the semi-finals. Despite this, a 107-run victory over Zimbabwe gives the Windies a massive net run rate advantage heading into these games.
Can Shimron Hetmyer guide West Indies to World Cup victory? Comment below