KINGSTON – Hero­ics from pac­er Ben Dwarshuis and bats­men Mitchell Owen and Cameron Green pro­pelled Aus­tralia to a tense three-wick­et win over the West In­dies in the open­ing T20I in Ja­maica on Sun­day.

Dwarshuis re­bound­ed from be­ing roughed up in his open­ing spell to fin­ish with a four-wick­et haul, as the Windies, who at one point looked set to score over 200 runs, were lim­it­ed to 189 for eight from their 20 overs af­ter they were asked to bat first at Sabi­na Park.

Aus­tralia then found them­selves strug­gling at 78 for four in the ninth over, be­fore Play­er-of-the-Match Owen and Green struck de­struc­tive half-cen­turies to help stage a re­cov­ery and lead them to 190 for sev­en off 18.5 overs.

The mas­sive crowd on hand to wit­ness An­dre Rus­sell’s penul­ti­mate in­ter­na­tion­al match was giv­en much to cheer about in the ear­ly stages.

Open­ers Bran­don King and Shai Hope got the home side off to a blaz­ing start, with King in par­tic­u­lar quick to pounce on any wide or over­pitched de­liv­er­ies.

He got off the mark by hit­ting Dwarshuis for two suc­ces­sive bound­aries in the open­ing over and Shawn Ab­bott was al­so hit for two fours in the en­su­ing over.

Hope then joined in on the ac­tion by clob­ber­ing Dwarshuis for back-to-back bound­aries in the third over as the Windies rushed to 32 with­out loss af­ter three overs.

How­ev­er, the in­tro­duc­tion of left-arm spin­ner Coop­er Con­nol­ly in the fourth over reaped im­me­di­ate div­i­dends when he had King stumped for 18 af­ter the bats­man walked down the pitch and missed his heave.

Ros­ton Chase, who was on­ly in the side be­cause of an in­jury to open­er Evin Lewis, then thrilled spec­ta­tors as he and Hope put Aus­tralia’s bowlers to the sword in a 91-run part­ner­ship in nine overs.

Chase took a while to get go­ing, scor­ing nine runs from the first 10 balls he faced, but he broke free by pulling Con­nol­ly through mid­wick­et for four and fol­lowed that up next ball by hit­ting him over long off for six.

Leg spin­ner Adam Zam­pa was lift­ed back over his head for six by Chase, and in the 10th over bowled by Ab­bott, he struck him for four bound­aries to move to 45, as the West In­dies mo­tored along to 103 for one.

Chase brought up his third T20I half-cen­tu­ry off 25 balls when he slashed Nathan El­lis be­hind point for four.

He then greet­ed the re­turn­ing Dwarshuis with two con­sec­u­tive fours, but was caught at long on the next ball to be out for 60 from 32 balls, with nine fours and two six­es.

Fol­low­ing his de­par­ture, Hope upped the ante, clob­ber­ing Maxwell for a six and then slap­ping Zam­pa down the ground for an­oth­er max­i­mum to bring up his sev­enth T20I half cen­tu­ry off 37 balls, as the Windies end­ed the 15th over on 152 for two.

But once Owen dis­missed Hope in the en­su­ing over for 55 from 39 balls, in­clu­sive of four fours and three six­es, the West In­dies’ in­nings un­rav­elled.

Ab­bott had Rov­man Pow­ell caught for one, and in the 19th over, Dwarshuis ac­count­ed for the wick­ets of Rus­sell for eight, and Sher­fane Ruther­ford and Ja­son Hold­er for ducks, and the Windies could on­ly scrape 37 runs from the last five overs while los­ing six wick­ets.

Dwarshuis end­ed with 4-36 to be Aus­tralia’s best bowler.

West In­dies then found them­selves in the dri­ver’s seat, hav­ing swept away Aus­tralia’s top or­der to leave them reel­ing at 78 for four.

But Green and Owen came to­geth­er in an 80-run part­ner­ship from just 40 balls, which turned the tide of the match com­plete­ly in Aus­tralia’s favour.

Owen got off the mark by thump­ing Rus­sell for two six­es in the 10th over that leaked 18 runs and he con­tin­ued his car­nage by smash­ing Akeal Ho­sein for three mas­sive six­es in the 12th over that went for 20 runs.

Green then thumped Hold­er for a four and six and brought up his fourth T20I half-cen­tu­ry off 25 balls by giv­ing Motie the same treat­ment.

Motie got his re­venge by hav­ing him caught at long on with his next ball, to dis­miss him for 51 from 26 balls with five six­es and two fours, but by then the dam­age had been done, with Aus­tralia re­quir­ing 32 runs from 30 balls.

Owen hit Joseph for a tow­er­ing six to score a half-cen­tu­ry on de­but off 26 balls, but he too was dis­missed im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter.

Dwarshuis and Ab­bott then saw Aus­tralia to vic­to­ry with sev­en balls to spare to give them a 1-0 lead in the five-match se­ries.

For the Windies, Motie took 2-29, Hold­er 2-32 and Joseph 2-39.

Sum­marised scores

WEST IN­DIES 189-8 in 20 overs (Ros­ton Chase 60, Shai Hope 55, Shim­ron Het­my­er 38, Bran­don King 18; Ben Dwarshuis 4-36).

AUS­TRALIA 190-7 in 18.5 overs (Cameron Green 51, Mitchell Owen 50, Mitchell Marsh 24, Josh In­glis 18, Coop­er Con­nol­ly 13, Glenn Maxwell 11; Gu­dakesh Motie 2-29, Ja­son Hold­er 2-32, Alzarri Joseph 2-39).

Aus­tralia won by three wick­ets.

Re­sult: Aus­tralia won by three wick­ets to

take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five se­ries.

Play­er-of-the-Match: Mitchell Owen.

Um­pires: Leslie Reifer, Za­hid Bas­sarath.

TV Um­pire: Deighton But­ler.

Re­serve Um­pire: Gre­go­ry Brath­waite.

Match Ref­er­ee: Re­on King.

CMC