Matthew Forde gives an abusive send-off to Syed Naqvi: West Indies faces Italy in the final Group C game of the 2026 T20 World Cup at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. The Windies have already qualified for the Super 8 stages after winning all three out of their three matches in the tournament. It remains a dead rubber as they made no changes to the side.
Italy has played a good brand of cricket, showcasing its talent in its maiden edition of the T20 World Cup, as it won against Nepal and came close against England as well. During the second innings of the match, while Italy was chasing, a heated moment appeared as Windies pacer Matthew Forde abused Syed Naqvi after picking his wicket.
Matthew Forde gives an abusive send-off to Syed Naqvi
The incident occurred during the 5.5 overs of the game, as Naqvi tried to slog down the ball of Matthew Forde, and the bat got sliced, and the ball went straight up in the air with Shamar Joseph taking an easy catch at the mid-off region. After this wicket by Matthew Forde, Italy were reduced to 37/3.
Here’s the video
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Coming to the match, West Indies, after being invited to bat first, did not have the best of starts as they lost opener Brandon King in the second over of the match. They were reduced to 31/2 in the first five overs, with Shimron Hetmyer going back scoring just one run.
Shai Hope plays a captain’s knock
Captain Shai Hope took the responsibility into his own hands and played a brilliant knock of 75 off 46 deliveries, smashing six fours and four sixes at a strike rate of 163.04. Small cameos from Roston Chase, Sherfane Rutherford, and Matthew Forde helped the Windies post a decent total of 165/6.
Coming out to chase, Italy lost their openers, the Mosca brothers, inside the power play. They have been reduced to 94/5 after the end of 14 overs. Benjamin Manenti and Grant Stewart have been in the crease, with the latter having come just now. JJ Smuts is the recent batter to be dismissed on the score of 24 off 27 balls.
Italy struggle to chase
They still need 72 off 36 deliveries; it looks difficult as they need someone to step up big and score the runs quickly. As the required run rate has gone upto 12. Windies will look for a good finish and win this game as well, to make it four out of four.
The West Indies have been drawn in the Super 8 Group 1 alongside South Africa, Zimbabwe, and India. They have a brilliant chance to qualify for the semi-finals as the Windies have played good cricket in India.
The West Indies have been the dark horse in the competition with a strong spin bowling department. They are the two-time champions of the competition in 2012 and 2016. Both their trophy came in the subcontinent, once in Sri Lanka and later in India.
This time, both the nations are the co-hosts, and they would like to repeat history once again, keeping their subcontinent records in the T20 World Cup editions in mind.
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