The defending champions West Indies were absolutely blown away by the Three Lions tonight in both these teams’ opening fixture of Group A in Dubai, as England won by 6 wickets with 70 balls to spare.
The chase of 56 was always going to be a walk in the park for England. They also started reasonably well scoring 21 runs in the first 3 overs. However, after that start, they somehow managed to make a meal of the chase losing 4 wickets within a space of just 18 runs.
But the wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Butler (24*) and the skipper Eoin Morgan (7*) ensured no further hiccups as they took their team to a comprehensive victory.
Akeal Hosein bowled a brilliant spell of 2/24 in his four overs.
Winning the toss and fielding first, England were all over West Indies throughout the innings. The defending champions never got any partnership going with Chris Gayle being the only batter reaching the double figures (13).
All the bowlers were on a role whenever they got the ball in hand. Chris Woakes started the party removing Even Lewis in the second over. Then Moeen Ali picked up Lendl Simmons and Shimron Hetmyer in his next two overs - third and fifth of the innings.
Tymal Mills then got the better of the Gayle to have England 31/4 at the end of the powerplay.
Innings did not get any better for the Carribeans even after the powerplay. They kept on losing their wickets in all possible manners. They tried to hit big shots only to get hold in the deep, nicked the balls while swinging hard, even got deceived to the flight of the ball.
In that post-powerplay havoc, Jordan and Mills bagged another couple of wickets picking up Dwayne Bravo and Nicholas Pooran respectively.
Then came Adil Rashid in the tenth over of the innings and finished it off within 14 deliveries of his quota, claiming his career-best figures of 4 wickets for 2 runs. This figure of 4/2 happens to be the best bowling figure for any Englishmen in T20Is.
The 55 of West Indies is the third-lowest score in the history of the T20 World Cup. Only Netherlands have done worse than this, not once but twice - both against Sri Lanka (39 in Chattogram, 2014 and 44 in Sharjah yesterday night).
Moeen Ali has been awarded the Player of the Match for his spell of 2/17 in four overs along with a difficult catch running backwards to dismiss Even Lewis.
