In what was expected to be a high-voltage game, ended up being a one-sided game as England outclassed West Indies by a mammoth margin of 8 wickets on 20th June 2024 at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in Gros Islet, St Lucia.
Batting first, co-hosts of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, West Indies managed to score 180 runs for the loss of 4 wickets. As admitted by their skipper Rovman Powell, the West Indies were 15-20 runs short.
There were handsome contributions from most of the Windies batters but none of them managed to score a fifty in this ground. Brandon King and Johnson Charles had gotten off to a flying start but in the 5th over, King had to retire hurt after pulling a muscle.
He scored 23 runs off 13 balls and his innings was packed with 3 fours and 1 six. Nicholas Pooran, who was coming on the back of a 98-run knock against Afghanistan in their previous game, scored 36 runs in 32 balls.
With the white cherry, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone took 1 wicket each and helped England restrict the hard-hitting West Indies to 180 runs.
The spinners got assistance from the pitch in St Lucia and most of them were economical except that one expensive over from Livingston, which yielded 20 runs to the opposition.
Phil Salt led the batting stocks for England
The defending champions injected a dose of confidence into their campaign with their dominant and swashbuckling batting performance in their Super 8 opener. Phil Salt was in his element as he blasted his way to 87* runs in just 47 balls.
His innings was laced with 7 fours and 5 sixes and he batted with an excellent strike-rate of 185.11.
Jonny Bairstow too played exceedingly well as he scored an unbeaten knock of 48* runs in 26 balls with 5 fours and 2 sixes under his belt. A
Only Andre Russell and Roston Chase managed to pick up wickets for West Indies. This loss comes as a reality check for West Indies and they need to go back to the drawing board to come out strongly.
England next lock horns with South Africa on 21st June 2024 and West Indies take on USA on 22nd June 2024.
Also read: ICC T20 World Cup 2024: USA’s Tough Fight Goes In Vain As South Africa Outclass Them By 18 Runs
