Australia ominous, Windies feeling right at home

In what now has become almost a ritual in any cricket showpiece, Australia have swaggered into the Super Eight stage of the T20 World Cup, while West Indies have revelled in home conditions as the race for the semi-finals begins on Wednesday.

Having won the World Test Championship and the 50-overs World Cup in 2023, Australia are hoping to be the first team to hold the global titles in all three formats simultaneously.

Four comprehensive victories in the group matches suggest the Mitchell Marsh-led squad have the form and personnel to achieve that.

In what has been a low-scoring tournament, Australia are the only team to have posted two 175-plus totals and one of the three teams to hit the 200-mark.

They have looked largely unperturbed by the conditions which other teams have found difficult to master.

Familiarity with the slow pitches has served West Indies particularly well as the Rovman Powell-led side also won all four group matches to breeze into the Super Eight.

The Caribbean team did not qualify for last year's 50-overs World Cup in India but look determined to do well in a format that is their strong suit.

Daren Sammy captained West Indies to T20 World Cup titles in 2012 and 2016 and the former all-rounder has transformed the side since taking over the coaching reins.

The Caribbean team have found the right mix of youth and experience.

"We have been playing our entire career on these pitches. We're not surprised that it's slow, it's low, it's low-scoring," batter Nicholas Pooran said.

"The reason why most of our averages are 20-25 is because we bat on pitches like this.

"But we know for a fact as a group, whenever we get good pitches, we are very dangerous team and that is an advantage to us."

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