How Alzarri Joseph is Turning the Heat For His West Indies?


image-lftaynkmJoseph was the star for Windies [AP Photos]

Of the many things that didn’t go right one bit for the West Indies on their tour to South Africa, the few that did included Alzarri Joseph’s red hot form with the white ball. 

In the end, it turned out to be the decisive factor that went into the hands of the visitors. 

For a team that’s not used to being on the correct side of the result, Alzarri Joseph combined menacing speed and thoughtfulness in taking his Windies over the line.

West Indies' trump card  

He was a force in motion. He was the main headlining material; he lead the pace attack from the front and ensured that the team that’s so often and perhaps even easily belted for one run too many stayed in the hunt until the end. 

In giving an able and fiery example of just that Joseph was on the go and on the job for the Caribbean outfit in the winner-takes-it-all must-win T20 final at Johannesburg. 

Now that the series is dusted and one can reflect on it sans any conjecture or projections, a question concerning Alzarri Joseph ought to be asked. 

Just where might his West Indies team been in that crucial decider at Jo’burg had Alzarri not picked five of those Proteas’ wickets on his own? 

Akin to how a vital thirty something in a T20I is considered perhaps just as relevant or decisive as a half century, a three-for in the short form of the game is considered worthy of being a match winning effort. 

He would go on to pick not a three-for, but a fifer. And that’s despite the West Indies feeling all sorts of pressure for as it turned out, the Proteas were really going for it. 

And right when his team needed it, there was Alzarri Joseph with a plan in mind.


How he went about his business

His first real target was Quinton de Kock, the biggest fish of them all; the man who’d tarnished the Windies bowlers’s reputation reducing them to smithereens at Centurion in the previous game.

Frankly speaking, if the Windies had to exert some pressure in a run chase that once again featured plenty more than 200 on the board, they had to get de Kock early. After all, he was the main man who’d smoked Smith, Hosein, Shepherd and company to all parts of the ground. 

image-lftb0eqtJoseph was adjudged player of the match

Bowling a touch fuller and right outside the off stump, Joseph had his man; an airborne shot by the left hander pouched at deep point. South Africa were one down and the Windies one up in that sense. 

In the latter stages of the contest where one can’t be blamed for feeling that the game was running away with the way Reeza Hendricks was smashing them all, Joseph was brought in again. 

Arguably speaking, this was the captaincy move of the match by Powell. 

In opting for a calculated ploy, Alzarri Joseph went for a slower full toss just around the off stump sensing the right hander’s proclivity to hit it big. 

In the end, Hendricks was taken in the outfield, just inside the ropes. 

This wasn’t just a wicket; it was removing a man mountain of runs. 

But purely from a West Indies perspective, one could’ve sensed absolute silence in the ground with the way Klaasen swept the right armer to a harrowing six towards the mid wicket region immediately upon his arrival only for Joseph to have his man out caught the very next ball; the experienced Sheldon Cottrell making no mistake at all. 

But the Alzarri Joseph fireworks didn’t stop there; he’d castle Wayne Parnell, whom he’d belted for a 93-meter six earlier on when the Windies batted, soon after. 

That particular wicket drew Windies closer to a victory that is justly being dubbed famous and South Africa closer to the stage of ignominy. 

Who knows who might have emerged on top in the ODI series had we not lost the opening contest to incessant rains. 

But a thing can be said for certain; had Alzarri Joseph not been in the ranks, there was little chance that the Windies would’ve maintained their winning record in the T20I’s in South Africa. 

Up to this point, the men from the Caribbean haven’t lost a single short format series playing in the great land of Kallis, Steyn and de Villiers. 

In Joseph, the Windies are perhaps fortunate to have found a youngster who’s not fame hungry but is, in fact, hungry for improvement. 

It makes perfect sense with the great Ian Bishop contending that over the last few months, Joseph has added more pace to his craft and opted to bowl a little fuller. That’s his go to plan of action. 

If anything, he’d just want to avoid bowling in the slot, which is where he’s taken for a few. 

Though in all, the rise of that young man who was once a net bowler and bowled to Warner and company in the nets at St Lucia over half a decade back in time has been nothing but inspirational. 

At a time where Roach hardly plays white ball cricket with Gabriel never really being a first choice in the format, the West Indies have a strong trinity with Holder and Cottrell giving able company to the introverted Antiguan. 

May more stumps be rattled and more fiery spells be executed to clinical perfection in the times to come by Alzarri Joseph. That’ll be just one of the many reasons why they’ll rally around the West Indies. 

Note- on this tour to SA, Alzarri picked 12 wickets from 4 white ball contests.