If this had been a football match, it would have been Southampton 4, Man City 1. England never recovered from a start so bad that it could have come straight from Australia, like Sam Billings. Another continent, another collapse. West Indies, tenth in the T20 table, were terrific in all three departments. “Tough times don’t last,” says the winning captain Kieron Pollard, “tough people do.”
That’s it from me. Thanks for your company and your correspondence, sorry not to get through it all. Simon Burnton’s match report will be along shortly and Tanya Aldred will be here tomorrow, from 7pm GMT, to talk us through the second episode of a series that has just got more interesting.
Eoin Morgan is measured in defeat. “Not at all [the start we were after],” he says. “The opposite conditions to the practice match and we didn’t adapt well. Gotta come back tomorrow, fresh game plan, execute it better. It’s the nature of international cricket, you get tested, exposed to different challenges.”
The player of the match, quite rightly, is one of Bridgetown’s favourite sons: Jason Holder. “I was happy to see the ball go through,” he says. “The challenge is repeating it tomorrow. We’ve got a hectic schedule but I’m up for it.”
West Indies, who normally get ’em in sixes, cleared the boundary only once today. They won by treating T20 like a Test match, taking early wickets, posting slips and holding their catches. England’s top order were so bad, they could have been playing Test cricket too.
17th over: West Indies 103-1 (King 51, Pooran 27) Sweet Caroline suddenly rings out, continuing its bid to take over the world and lighting up the crowd. Pooran, facing Mahmood, rises to the “oh-oh-OHs” with a classy cut for four. King sees it and thinks he’ll have a bit of that too. That brings up the West Indies hundred. A wristy push for a single brings up King’s fifty off 47 balls. A pull from Pooran for a single brings up the fifty partnership, off 46 balls. Yet another single from King levels the scores.
16th over: West Indies 91-1 (King 45, Pooran 21) Mills continues, varying his pace and his length, demanding respect, but somehow not taking the double hat-trick that England need.
15th over: West Indies 85-1 (King 41, Pooran 19) This turns out to be the momentEoin Morgan was saving Adil Rashid up for. He smacks Pooran on the boot but it’s outside leg, and Rash finishes with one for 21.
“I’m hugely biased,” says Nick Butler, “but the ECB might as well just send Nottinghamshire to play white ball games for them instead of this lot. Hales, Slater, Clarke, Duckett, Patel, Mullaney, Harrison, Moores, Carter, Fletcher, Ball would surely do a better job than this team. That would never happen of course but in terms of the individual players – I know Hales has been blackballed but surely Joe Clarke must be off the naughty step by now. And Duckett. Cheers for the coverage.” Pleasure!
14th over: West Indies 81-1 (King 40, Pooran 16) Mills returns too, so after all that spin, it’s suddenly seam at both ends. King likes the sound of that, cutting the first ball for four, “with a touch of class” as Mark Butcher says. King has made the highest score of the day at almost a run a ball and has, I reckon, no chance at all of being the man of the match.
13th over: West Indies 75-1 (King 35, Pooran 15) Jordan returns and Pooran deals with him brusquely, slapping his first ball down the ground. When Jordan produces a sharp yorker, King is good enough to dig it out. The required rate is four an over – derisory stuff.
12th over: West Indies 66-1 (King 32, Pooran 9) Morgan takes Rashid off, saving his last over for I’m not sure when. On comes Moeen, whose off-breaks were rather under-used in the World Cup. The miscues continue, with the ball three times going in the air but not to hand. West Indies need 37 from 48 balls.
11th over: West Indies 60-1 (King 30, Pooran 5) Dawson bowls his last over and he’s still giving a fruitless masterclass, all mistimed drives and strangled appeals. “Bowled Daws,” says Billings. He finishes with figures of 4-0-12-0 and the fates owing him one.
10th over: West Indies 57-1 (King 29, Pooran 3) So West Indies finally lose a wicket after knocking off half the runs. Morgan rewards Rashid with a slip, his mate Moeen. But Nicholas Pooran is off the mark in style, lapping for two, and the runs keep coming from King. West Indies’ chances of a win, on CricViz, are now 100 per cent.
9th over: West Indies 52-0 (King 27, Hope 20) Dawson again causes problems, and again a miscue falls just short of a fielder as King top-edges a cut. This could be the best none-for you’ll never see.
8th over: West Indies 48-0 (King 28, Hope 18) It’s Tymal time! The man England badly missed at the end of the World Cup is back in business, or at least in harness. He cuts Hope in half, but gets chipped by King, who picks up four as Jordan, for once, fluffs it on the rope. West Indies are 48 for none; England were 49 for seven.
Here’s Andrew Benton, armed with a theory. “The common denominators linking doing badly at red ball cricket and doing badly at white ball cricket are clearly ‘ball’ and ‘cricket’, so I suggest doing away with the ball to give us a sporting chance.”
7th over: West Indies 41-0 (King 19, Hope 17) Dawson is getting both turn and bounce, inducing one false shot after another, but the ball keeps refusing to take the edge.
“Is there any chance of a technical fault,” asks Charles Shedrick, “or could you just switch to the good old fashioned test card? Please stop keeping up the good work, it is starting to hurt.” Ha. We love to hate it, don’t we?
6th over: West Indies 37-0 (King 16, Hope 17) Rashid can threaten both edges, with his excellent googly, but Morgan doesn’t feel able to give him any men round the bat. King steps out and slog-sweeps him for six, the first of the innings. Here endeth the PowerPlay, without a wicket.
5th over: West Indies 28-0 (King 9, Hope 15) It’s spin at both ends, in the PowerPlay, as Liam Dawson gets the call. He bustles in and persuades King to flat-bat in the air, but the ball drops a few yards short of James Vince at long-off. A good over, only two off it, but West Indies can just about afford that.
4th over: West Indies 26-0 (King 8, Hope 14) On CricViz, West Indies’ chances of a win are 94 per cent. What can Morgan do? Send for Rash. His leg-break deceives Brandon King, only to flick the pad and elude poor old Sam Billings, so that’s four leg byes. The cameras find Sir Garfield Sobers, looking frail but cracking a smile.
3rd over: West Indies 19-0 (King 6, Hope 13) Mahmood finds some lift and Hope, flicking to leg, skies over square leg for a couple. A better flick zips away for four, and England’s total is already looking very small.
2nd over: West Indies 13-0 (King 6, Hope 7) The new ball goes to Chris Jordan, top scorer in England’s so-called innings. He’s greeted with a dismissive pull by Shai Hope, who sees it so early that that ball goes rasping past mid-on.
Jason Roy makes a good stop at backward point in the middle of giving an interview. Who says men can’t multi-task?
1st over: West Indies 6-0 (King 5, Hope 1) As the lights come on it’s Saqib Mahmood, so impressive last summer, to open the bowling. With fine leg up, he strays onto the hip and Brandon King tucks him away for four. Mahmood strikes back with a lifter that beats King outside off. The pitch is decidedly springy – half beach, half biscuit.
Two in two! Rashid makes room outside off and gets bowled in the manner of Rory Burns. Holder finishes with four for seven, but hats off too to Rashid. With Jordan, he may just have made a game of it. See you shortly.
19th over: England 102-8 (Rashid 21, Mahmood 5) Rashid mows Allen over midwicket, is dropped by Holder in the deep, and gets four from the fumble. Up comes the hundred, greeted by rueful cheers from the England fans. Since Rashid came in, they’ve doubled the score.
18th over: England 95-8 (Rashid 15, Mahmood 4) Saqib Mahmood, facing Pollard, shows the top order how it’s done with a wristy on-drive. And then Adil Rashid plays a gorgeous dab, taking the bat away from the ball, just brushing it through the vacant first slip for four. Pollard strikes back with a warning to Mahmood as he backs up too far, but the over belongs to the batters.
17th over: England 87-8 (Rashid 10, Mahmood 1) That was an inspired change from Pollard and a fine first over from Allen, with his slow left-am. The only crumb of comfort for England, with their three spinners, is that there’s plenty of turn.
Wicket! Jordan c Cottrell b Allen 28 (England 85-8)
There it is! A change of bowling and a spot of flight do the trick as Fabian Allen lures Jordan into a chip to deep mid-off. It was fun while it lasted.
16th over: England 84-7 (Jordan 28, Rashid 8) As the partnership has raced to 32 off 20 balls, Kieron Pollard decides it’s time to bring on his big gun: himself. He does well, conceding only three singles, but these two old stagers are still there and the one born in Barbados is having a ball.
15th over: England 81-7 (Jordan 27, Rashid 6) Sheldon Cottrell is back for his last over. He keeps Jordan honest with a couple of dots, then goes for a couple of singles and a two, and finally condos a six as Jordan slaps him over cover. “Magnificent strike that is,” says Mark Butcher. On the artificial beach, a topless man takes a fine falling catch.
14th over: England 71-7 (Jordan 18, Rashid 5) And another one! Jordan spots a friendly bouncer from Shepherd and pulls it for a regal six. And then he’s dropped, but it’s a very hard chance to Shepherd himself – no blame attached. Jordan takes over as top scorer for England, with 18 off 13 balls, replacing Morgan, whose 17 occupied 29 balls. And Adil Rashid joins in with a pull for four, so that’s 12 off the over. For the past ten minutes, it’s been back to Twenty20 as we know it.
13th over: England 59-7 (Jordan 9, Rashid 0) Another six! Swung straight by Jordan off a half-volley from Hosein. Will it be six-and-out again? No! Jordan goes back and pulls for two. He adds another two, to backward point, to make 10 from the over. It’s going to be all right.
“I started work at pretty much the same time as this match commenced,” says Phil Withall. “It’s probably fair to say I’ve put in more of a shift than the England players have.”
Mid-12th over: England 49-6 (Morgan 17, Jordan 1) Morgan plays his best shot yet, which isn’t saying much – a caress of an off drive, And then he goes inside-out for six. “Pressure on the bowler!” says a commentator. Are you sure?
