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Man of the Match Obed McCoy and the recalled Hayden Walsh Jr dragged the West Indies back from the brink of defeat to pull off a remarkable 18-run victory over Australia in the first of their five-match CG Insurance T20 series in St Lucia on Friday night.

McCoy (4-26) and Walsh Jr (3-23) combined to take the last six Australian wickets for just 19 runs even though the visitors needed less than five runs an over to secure victory.

Fabian Allen also played his part with the ball taking 2-24 when Australia threatened to run away with the match courtesy of Matthew Wade’s quick-fire 33 and Mitchell Marsh’s 31-ball 51, his maiden T20 half-century.

Chasing a modest 146 to take a 1-0 lead in the series, Australia were well positioned to make short work of the chase having raced to 70-3 at the end of the Power Play. Matthew Wade had sent them on their way to what seemed like an easy victory smashing his runs from just 14 balls despite the early loss of Aaron Finch to Allen’s first ball of the match with only eight runs on the board.

The Australian captain made four.

Notwithstanding the loss of the early wicket, boundaries flowed from the Australian bats and victory seemed inevitable until McCoy and Walsh Jr pulled the rug from under them.

Having won the toss and electing to field, Australia had the West Indies in trouble early having lost the wickets of Evin Lewis (0), Chris Gayle (4), Lendl Simmons (27) and Nicholas Pooran (17) by the 12^th over with only 65 runs on the board.

They owed their final total to Andre Russell, who after a string of poor performances with the bat against South Africa, finally rediscovered his form to smash 51 from 28 balls. The mercurial allrounder hit three fours and five sixes before he was bowled by Josh Hazelwood in the 20^th over with the score at 137.

Shimron Hetmyer made 20 as he and Russell added 35 for the fifth wicket.

Allen and Bravo, who were unbeaten on eight and seven, respectively, managed to add eight runs from the last four balls to give the West Indies something to bowl at.

Hazelwood finished with figures of 3-12 from his four overs while Marsh took 2-26.

“”What a game,” said Pooran, who captained the team in the absence of Kieron Pollard who missed the game with “a niggle’.

“First game as captain, wasn’t expecting this. Losing the series against South Africa, we knew we had to come back out here and do the right things. We didn’t get as much as we wanted, 145, but all we asked was for a challenging total.

“We asked the guys for energy and that’s what they brought. I can’t give the bowlers enough credit. They came out firing, the Australians, and we knew we needed wickets to win the game. We wanted them to attack those stumps, keep asking questions and Obed McCoy came and won the game for us.”

For his part, McCoy said he was glad to be able to lead the team to victory.

“Normally on that surface the ball has nice bounce and carry but I was just trying to mix up my pace as much as I can.”

Obed McCoy

“It feels great. I’ve been working really hard. It was just all about execution and sticking to the team plan,” he said.

“Normally on that surface the ball has nice bounce and carry but I was just trying to mix up my pace as much as I can. I noticed the spinners were getting a bit of turn so I thought my slower balls would grip. We were confident and knew we had the bowling to back it and just knew we had to go out and fight hard.”

Meanwhile, a naturally disappointed Finch said while his bowlers did a great job, the batsmen let the side down.

“I thought our bowlers did a fantastic job particularly in the Powerplay,” he said.

“Anytime you lose 6 for 19, you’re gonna struggle to win a T20 game. So we just needed somebody to take it upon themselves and get right through to the end. I think we needed under four an over for the majority of that last bit, so very disappointing.

“After the position that Marsh and Wade got us into, just a bit of game smarts would have got us over the line they but sort of panicked a little bit. We’ve been working on trying to be a little more aggressive in the middle overs but maybe just needed to rein it in today and have some more smarts. I thought the wicket played a little better batting second. There’s no excuses for our batting display there. You’ve got to dust yourselves off and come again with the same attitude but just execute a little bit better under pressure.