WI vs AUS | Fourth T20I: Talking points ft Glenn Maxwell masterclass and Tim David's absence

‌Australia beat West Indies in the fourth T20I by three wickets to go 4-0 up in the five-match series with one game to go. The Aussies keep their hopes of a clean sweep alive going into the fifth and final game, which will be hosted by Warner Park once again on July 29. Here are some of the talking points of the match of the dominant Australian win.

Glenn Maxwell was having a slightly underwhelming series, and things did not seem to change even when he was sent up the order to open the batting with T20I skipper Mitchell Marsh. However, the last game was where the people witnessed the class of Maxwell, who delivered in the field with three spectacular efforts in the first innings and followed that with an explosive 47 off 18 deliveries in the second innings to help the visitors chase down the score.

Cameron Green and Josh Inglis might still be early into their international careers, but have already proved themselves to be potential match-winners. While Josh Inglis got the Aussie innings back on track after they lost their skipper, Mitchell Marsh, for a silver duck with a quickfire 51 off 29 deliveries, Green kept the momentum and remained unbeaten on a score of 55 off 35 deliveries to take his team over the line.

Apart from their performance in the last match, they are currently the top two run-scorers for Australia in the series. While Green has scored 173 runs at an average of 86.50, Inglis is right behind with 162 runs at an average of 54. 

The Australian team made a couple of changes going into the game, which also included Tim David being replaced by Aaron Hardie in the playing eleven. This was a surprising move by the team since David had just scored a match-winning century in the third T20I, with reports suggesting that the six-hitting machine was rested for the upcoming series against South Africa, as he came into the series on the back of a hamstring injury, suffered during the IPL.

However, his absence from the game did not cause any harm to Australia’s dominance, as Aaron Hardie played his role to perfection with an incredible spell of 2/24 with the ball and formed an important partnership with Green in the second innings.

Jediah Blades came into the side with a lot of promise. The 23-year-old left-arm seamer came on the back of a fairly good record in domestic cricket. He made his debut in the third T20I, which turned out to be a disappointing outing for the youngster. He faced the wrath of the Aussie batters, going for  40 runs in his three overs, and failed to take a wicket as well.

However, he made up for his poor performances in the last game as he started well by trapping Marsh plumb in front of the stumps in his first over. He also returned in the middle phase with a double wicket over to try and get his team back in the game. However, his incredible spell of 3/29 went in vain as there was no other bowler to support him.

Though the West Indies bowling attack has had its fair share of struggles in this series, their approach with the bat in the game was slightly strange. The strike rates of the batters were incredible but they all seemed to throw their wickets away after getting a start. The highest score in the West Indies batting lineup during the game was 31, and the highest partnership was 43. This is one of the issues the hosts might want to look into going into the last game.