Mumbai: West Indies cricket doesn’t have the same aura as they did in their all-conquering days, but when it comes to the T20 format they still remain a big draw thanks to their battery of power hitters.
And when they have come up against England, another side that likes to go for it, they produce some memorable contests. Who, after all, can forget the 2016 World Cup final at Eden Gardens?
With the possibility of another high-voltage clash between the two well matched sides looming large, a crowd of almost 21,000 plus packed the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday evening.
The Harry Brook-led side was not able to produce their A game but West Indies provided the entertainment to continue their domination over England in sub-continent conditions, having previously won both their matches in the 2016 edition in India, powering to a 30-run win in the Group C clash of the ICC men’s T20 World Cup.
After being put in to bat, Sherfane Rutherford led the batting show with his six-hitting during a 42-ball unbeaten 76, Shimron Hetmyer set the tone of the contest with a 12-ball 23 and Jason Holder left his mark with 17-ball 33 as West Indies finished on 196/6.
England’s ace pacer Jofra Archer had an off day, going for 48 runs in four overs, but there were no easy runs to be had against experienced spinner Adil Rashid, Jamie Overton and Liam Dawson. Rashid was the standout performer. The leg-spinner put behind his tough outing against Nepal to return impressive figures of 4-0-16-2. He bowled in various stages of the game including the 18th over but didn’t concede a single four.
The feature of West Indies batting is their effortless hitting. Against England, they kept losing wickets at regular intervals but never struggled for runs. They always manage to make six-hitting look easy.
At the half-way mark of their innings, they had just 77 runs on board for the loss of four wickets. Yet, they easily made up and touched close to 200, finishing with 196/6.
Led by a superb bowling display from their left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie, West Indies easily defended the total by bowling out England for 166. Motie had figures of 4-0-33-3.
England had a better start than the West Indies. Phil Salt waded into Jason Holder, blasting 24 runs in the second over of the innings. They kept finding a boundary hit in the first eight overs to maintain a better run rate than the required rate reaching 85/3 after eight overs.
But Motie kept striking regular blows. He deceived Jacob Bethell with a beauty, clean bowling him; had Tom Banton caught at cover to have figures of 2-0-14-2 after his first two overs.
Captain Harry Brook joined forces with Sam Curran to keep England in the hunt through a fifth wicket partnership of 41 runs (26 balls). The turning point of the game came in the 14th over when Motie deceived Brook into offering a tame return catch to reduce England to 131/5.
Curran was going well on 22 off 14 balls but he needed support from the other end. Will Jacks fell leg before off Roston Chase for just two runs to leave England tottering at 134/6. It left England 63 to get off 32 balls with four wickets on hand.
England’s 150 was up at the end of the 17th over, leaving them to get 47 off 18 balls. Jofra Archer was run out on the second ball of 18th over to leave them with just two wickets in hand.
Earlier, England had got off to a dream start when they prized out both the West Indies openers cheaply, for just eight runs. No.3 Hetmyer produced a couple of big hits but also perished to a soft dismissal. Rutherford, however, made the most of a good batting pitch, enjoying the true bounce. He completed his fifty off just 29 balls with five sixes.
Despite the defeat, England should make the Super Eights alongwith West Indies from Group C. The other teams in their group are Nepal, Scotland and Italy.
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