Rousing debut impresses Mitch Owen after his half-century leads Australia to a 3-wicket win against West Indies.
Mitchell Owen makes his mark in what was a rousing debut for him in T20i cricket.
Mitchell Owen, however, claims that during his fantasy T20I debut against the West Indies in Jamaica, he was more anxious with the ball than with the bat. He also reveals that his strategy in a new position at No. 6 was the same as when he has dominated as a franchise opener.
Owen, 23, became the third Australian player to get a half-century on his T20I debut after Ricky Ponting and David Warner. He helped Australia defeat the West Indies by three wickets in the first game of a five-game series at Sabina Park by hitting 50 off 27 balls.
At a crucial point in the innings, he removed Shai Hope for 55, his first and only T20I wicket. This led to a West Indies collapse of 6 for 30, which was crucial to Australia’s victory.
After Shimron Hetmyer hit his opening ball for six, Owen acknowledged that he was really anxious throughout his opening over.
“I thought I was on 36 off the over there when he smacked me for six first ball,” Owen said after the match. “But I was lucky Shai hit one up the shoot and got my first wicket. I was pretty nervous running in those first six balls, but nice to get it out of the way.”
Given that it was Owen’s maiden half-century in T20 cricket while batting in the middle order, his batting performance was all the more impressive. His incredible performances as an opener in the most recent BBL, when he scored two hundreds for the Hobart Hurricanes, earned him a call-up to the Australia side. Before Sunday, he has only batted at No. 6 twice in his 16 career T20 innings, scoring 174 runs at 14.50 with a strike-rate of 148.71 and a maximum score of 34 while batting from No. 3 to No. 8.
Despite starting against spin with five men on the rope, Owen claimed he was unfazed.
“I honestly tried not to look at the field too much and just sort of react to each ball, which I think held me in good stead,” Owen said. “Obviously, it’s a little bit different, but I think my process, my game plan, wasn’t too different to opening the batting coming in at six. We had to strike at 10s or nines when I came out. So I still had to be nice and positive. If I took my time to sort of try and get into innings, I feel like I sort of dig myself a hole. So, yeah, just try and get after them from ball one.”