A depleted Australian cricket team lost to the West Indies by 35 runs in its second ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 warm-up match at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad on Friday.

With Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green still unavailable after their Indian Premier League stint earlier this month, the Aussies could only field nine first-team players. Coaches and support staff made up the numbers.

While the handicap didn’t stop the Australian team from comfortably beating Namibia in their first warm up tie on Wednesday, a full-strength West Indies side playing at home proved too much to handle.

Australian captain Mitch Marsh guessed it right at the coin toss and elected to field. Ashton Agar also gave the visitors an early breakthrough, removing Shai Hope in the third over.

However, a devastating 25-ball 75 by the in-form Nicholas Pooran, well-supported by Johnson Charles’ watchful 40 off 31 from the other end, saw the Windies race past 100 in quicktime.

Adam Zampa dismissed both Pooran and Charles but there was no respite as West Indies captain Rovman Powell (52 off 25), Shimron Hetmyer (18 off 13) and Sherfane Rutherford (47 off 18) helped West Indies post 257/4 in 20 overs.

In response, Australia lost David Warner, Ashton Agar and Marsh early and were reduced to 60/3 in the fifth over. However, Josh Inglis’ 55 off 30 gave some credibility to the chase.

Nifty cameos from Tim David (25 off 12), Matthew Wade (25 off 14), Nathan Ellis (39 off 22) and Adam Zampa (21 off 16) saw the Aussies cross the 200 mark, but the chase eventually ended 35 runs short.

Alzarri Joseph and Gudakesh Motie picked up two wickets each for the home team.

Australia, the 2021 T20 World Cup winners, will start their campaign in the tournament proper against Oman in Barbados on June 5.

Australia have been drawn in Group B for this year’s World T20 along with two-time champions England, Namibia, Scotland and Oman.

West Indies vs Australia T20 World Cup 2024 brief scores: West Indies 257/4 in 20 overs (Nicholas Pooran 75; Adam Zampa 2/62) beat Australia 222/7 in 20 overs (Josh Inglis 55; Gudakesh Motie 2/31) by 35 runs.