The West Indies kicked off the Super Eight round at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup with a devastating win, beating Zimbabwe by 107 runs, posting a mammoth 254-6 at the Wankhede Stadium in India, on Monday.

It was the second-highest total ever in T20 World Cup, only behind Sri Lanka’s 260-6 in 2007 versus Kenya, and it propelled the West Indies to the top of Group 1 with a superior net run rate of +5.350 ahead of South Africa with +3.800 after one round.

Player of the match Shimron Hetmyer hit a brilliant 85 runs from 34 balls, inclusive of seven sixes and seven fours with an impressive strike rate of 250 per cent. He shared a match-winning partnership of 122 runs with Rovman Powell, who stroked 59.

West Indies lost Brandon King for nine at 17-1, then Shai Hope for 14 at 54-2, before Hetmyer and Powell destroyed the Zimbabwean bowling and took the game out of their reach.

When Hetmyer went at 176-3, the foundation was already set and Powell, who hit 4 fours and 4 sixes, along with Sherfane Rutherford (31) and Romario Shepherd (21), along with 2 massive sixes from Jason Holder, who faced four balls, set Zimbabwe 255 to win.

Blessing Muzarabani took 2-42 from his four overs, and Richard Ngarava got 2-47. West Indies was brutal on skipper Sikandar Raza, who was hit for 52 from three overs.

When Zimbabwe batted, they lost three wickets with the score on 20 and never got into the hunt. Batting at number eight, Brad Evans was the top scorer, making 43 from 21 balls with five sixes and two fours. Dion Myer made 28, and captain Raza hit 27 runs.

Bowling for the West Indies, Gudesh Motie captured 4-28 and Akeal Hosein took 3-28 as they broke the spine of the Zimbabwean batting. Matthew Forde chipped in with 2-27.

The West Indies will be in action again on Thursday when they face South Africa.