The challenge the West Indies posed throughout the contest is being viewed as a positive by an Australian team whose World Cup campaign has been mostly starved of close contests.
The bowling attack was made to dig deep as Barbados slogger Zachary Carter bludgened seven fours and four sixes to give the West Indies’ run chase a fighting chance early. It was Australia’s Naden Cooray that eventually got the prized wicket, as Carter departed for 64 off 42 balls.
“It was probably great for us to get tested early on and (the West Indies) definitely came out swinging,” Peake continued.
“But I was really impressed with how the guys came back, in their second and third spells and probabaly a special mention to Naden Cooray who got that big wicket (removing Carter). He bowled superbly all day, keeping the stumps in play.”