“Evening Tim,” says Brian Withington. “Bloody hell. Cheers, Brian.” Bloody heaven, too.
Nicholas Pooran didn’t deserve to be on the losing side, in fact nobody did, but one team had to and it was the right one for the good of the series. So West Indies lead 2-1 and England live to fight another day.
That day is Tuesday, when I will be back to see if these two teams can hit another 34 sixes between them. Thanks for your company and correspondence. It’s been a blast.
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Here’s Jos Buttler, who for once doesn’t have to put on his brave face. His pale blue eyes are gleaming. “Yeah, great to keep the series alive,” he says. “Fantastic win, hats off to Phil Salt, brilliant innings. To bat all the way through to be not out at the end – full credit to him.”
“Is this it?” asks Tom van der Gucht. “Is this the moment when the phoenix rises from the Ashes. New heroes for new England being born with Salt and Brook stepping up and pencilling their names in as the spine of the team moving forward? Or is it just a false dawn... I’m just a bit disappointed Rehan Ahmed wasn’t playing otherwise it would have felt even more like a new dawn for the next generation. Still, what a game. People who never experience the thrill of following cricket via the OBO and Cricinfo ball-by-ball commentary have never lived. Sport at its most visceral and thrilling.” Thanks… but OBO and Cricinfo? I’m shocked, shocked.
The player of the match is Phil Salt. He says England had talked about someone staying in and being composed, the way Shai Hope had been against them. He is generous about his partner in crime too. “Brooky came in,” he says, “and played a hell of a knock at the end.”
A few stats for you. There were 448 runs in the match, off 40 overs. Salt and Brook added 40 off two overs. The last over, bowled by Andre Russell, went for 24 off five balls – four, six, six, two, six, all flowing off the fluent bat of Harry Brook.
The most economical bowler was Gudakesh Motie, who went for only 7.5 an over. England had the three next best – Reece Topley and Adil Rashid going for exactly 8, Moeen Ali for 8.67 – but they also had the two biggest spendthrifts, Tymal Mills (2-0-36-0) and Gus Atkinson (2-0-33-0).
West Indies were hot favourites at the break, and again after inducing a mid-innings slump, but it turned out that England were just lulling them into a state of false security.
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Every England batter played his part, bar Will Jacks. Jos Buttler made a polished 51 off 34 balls, Liam Livingstone a more agricultural 30 off 18, Brook a dazzling 31 off seven. But the best of all, with all due respect, was Phil Salt, who got off to a fast start, looked spent halfway through as England faltered, and then found the energy and the nerve to start hitting sixes again. He hit nine, England 18, Brook four. Fabulous stuff. The series is alive, and even if England lose it, this has been a daylight robbery that deserves to be long remembered.
Harry Brook, bloody hell
19.5 overs: England 226-3 (Salt 109, Brook 31) Brook carves Russell over the vacant slips, and England win by seven wickets with one ball to spare. His 31 came off seven balls.
ENGLAND HAVE WON!
I don’t believe it.
19.4 overs: England 220-3 (Salt 109, Brook 25) Two to midwicket, so that’s 18 off the over so far. England need three runs off two balls.
Six more!
19.3 overs: England 218-3 (Salt 109, Brook 23) Another six! Flipped over long leg. Brook has 23 off five balls! And England have somehow got the target down to five off the last three.
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Six to Brook!
19.2 overs: England 212-3 (Salt 109, Brook 17) Inside out, six over extra-cover. Genius. And England match West Indies’ tally of 16 sixes. Eleven needed now off four balls.
19.1 overs: England 206-3 (Salt 109, Brook 11) Russell tries a yorker. Brook flicks it for four.
19th over: England 202-3 (Salt 109, Brook 7) Salt keeps us tantalised by swinging the fourth ball of the over for six. That’s his ninth six and England’s 15th. But Joseph fights back, allowing only two singles off the last two balls. Ten off the over, which is parsimonious in the circumstances. England need 21 off the last six balls.
Mid-19th over: England 194-3 (Salt 102, Brook 6) Well bowled Alzarri Joseph! Dot, two, dot. England need 29 off nine balls, so they’re back in the realm of the almost impossible.
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18th over: England 192-3 (Salt 100, Brook 6) Poor Harry Brook, coming in with England needing about three runs a ball – but he hits his first one for six. With possibly the sweetest stroke of the whole innings, a real golf swing. That’s 19 off the over – three sixes and a single – so England need a mere 31 off the last two. Is it on?
WICKET! Livingstone c Powell b Holder 30 (England 186-3)
Holder persuades Livingstone to hole out!
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Hundred to Phil Salt!
A single takes Salt to his first hundred in T20 internationals off only 51 balls. This is his finest hour, and yet it may still be a heroic failure.
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Career-best for Salt!
Mid-18th over: England 185-2 (Salt 99, Livingstone 30) Phil Salt, whose previous best in T20 internationals was an 88 not out in Lahore, sails past that with a six off Holder. And then adds another!
17th over: England 172-2 (Salt 87, Livingstone 29) With the rate required nudging 18, Livingstone faces Joseph and hits the first ball, a failed yorker, for six. That’s the tenth time England have cleared the sponge today. Livingstone tries again, off a free hit, and is caught at long-on. Salt drives a full ball for f – no, it’s two, as Brandon King pulls out a dazzling dive and save. The fifty partnership comes up, off 30 balls, with Livingstone making most of the running. And after a goodish over, Joseph dishes up a full toss and Salt swings it for six. The rate required comes down from 18 to 17: England need to get 51 more runs off 18 balls. They can’t, can they?
16th over: England 152-2 (Salt 76, Livingstone 21) As Russell takes over from Holder, Salt rises to the challenge and wallops the first ball for six. Russell responds well – one, two, one, one. England need six off the last ball to keep up with the rate, but it’s a slow bouncer and Livingstone can only pull it to long-on for a single. This is a game in which you can collect 12 off an over and still feel as if you’ve let everyone down.
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15th over: England 140-2 (Salt 68, Livingstone 17) Alzarri Joseph comes back. One, one, one, wide … this is not what the doctor ordered. Livingstone realises it and hits an overpitched ball for a straight six. That’s England’s eighth six of the match, not bad – but West Indies hit 16. England need 83 off five overs, which is 50 more than they have made off the past five. Salt is going to have to go bananas.
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14th over: England 128-2 (Salt 65, Livingstone 9) Liam Livingstone is the latest all-rounder to be promoted above Harry Brook, after Sam Curran the other night. It only half-worked then (good for Curran, bad for Brook), and it starts by half-working now. Livingstone blasts a six, but fires a couple of blanks too. Salt chips Holder towards long-off, where Powell comes racing in, seems to pull off a great catch, then shakes his head to say he didn’t take it cleanly. Top marks for sportsmanship.
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13th over: England 119-2 (Salt 64, Livingstone 2) Alas, poor Jacks. Facing the reinvigorated Motie, he was first beaten, then dismissed by a pacy turning ball that wasn’t short enough for the cut he had in mind. Motie has no overs left now (4-0-30-1), but he has done his bit: England’s brave effort is suddenly falling apart. They need 104 off 42 balls, which is all but impossible.
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WICKET! Jacks c Pooran b Motie 1 (England 116-2)
Oh dear.
12th over: England 116-1 (Salt 63, Jacks 1) I wonder if Will Jacks has ever had to wait this long to make a T20 entrance. He gets off to the opposite of a flyer, going dot-dot-dot, then stroking a single when he might be better off leaving the strike to Salt.
WICKET!! Buttler c Joseph (via Hosein) b Russell 51 (England 115-1)
And there’s the breakthrough. Buttler, just after reaching his fifty with a reverse ramp for four, top-edges a big hit and Hosein redeems himself, not just pulling off a cool catch but passing the ball to Joseph as he himself is about to step over the sponge.
11th over: England 111-0 (Salt 63, Buttler 47) Motie has got his groove on now, going for just four singles. Suddenly the run rate required is over 12 … and anyone who worries about a Nelson may be having kittens.
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Hundred partnership!
10th over: England 107-0 (Salt 61, Buttler 45) Hosein comes back for a fourth over. Is he Powell’s best friend? Salt lofts him for an easy six that brings up the hundred partnership off only 56 balls. Buttler has been playing second fiddle for the last 20 minutes and they’ve still been rattling along at 11 an over. We’ve reached the halfway stage with England still in the game – and the series.
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9th over: England 97-0 (Salt 53, Buttler 43) Motie was changing ends, returning to the scene of his triumph the other night. After going for 18 off his one over from the other end, he allows only five singles off this one. That’s practically a maiden.
“The difference in this game.” says Matt Guthrie in Phoenix Arizona, “will be that England are hitting 4s, whereas the Winds hit 6s.” Maybe: five sixes so far from England. West Indies, by the way, were 73-3 at this stage.
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8th over: England 92-0 (Salt 51, Buttler 40) In a moral victory for England, Motie is taken off after one over as Jason Holder returns. He does well with his first three balls – one, two, dot – but then Salt goes down the track and pulls a pace-off bouncer for four. And when he spots another slower ball, he can tuck it for two to reach a fine fifty off only 26 balls. The rate required is just under 11. Piece of cake.
7th over: England 81-0 (Salt 41, Buttler 39) Here’s Alzarri Joseph. Like a few other bowlers today, he begins by conceding a boundary – a pull for four by Buttler. When he beats Buttler with pace off, it’s a no-ball. Eight off the over, which counts as a triumph for the bowler, but England are still ahead of the rate. The question is, can they avoid the dreaded mid-innings collapse?
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6th over: England 73-0 (Salt 40, Buttler 33) To round off the Powerplay, Powell turns to his second spinner, Gudakesh Motie, who went for just nine off his four overs the other night. Now he goes for more than that off four balls. Salt greets him with a whip for six, Buttler plays another fine reverse for four and Salt rubs himself into the wounds with another six.
The Powerplay belongs to England, but this is still a very long shot.
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5th over: England 55-0 (Salt 27, Buttler 28) Rovman Powell persists with Hosein, for reasons that are mysterious. Salt blathers him down the ground for four, and Buttler adds finesse with a gorgeous reverse slog-sweep. Hosein has 3-0-34-0 and England are only just behind the required rate.
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4th over: England 44-0 (Salt 21, Buttler 23) Holder, after one over for 12, is replaced by Andre Russell. He keeps Buttler quiet, beating him outside off, but Salt hits a three and a dazzling four, smacking a yorker through a narrow gap in the covers.
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3rd over: England 35-0 (Salt 13, Buttler 22) Hosein gets a second over. Buttler mows him for four past mid-on, then dabs a two past backward point. A couple of singles, another two, a couple of misfields. West Indies are falling apart, clearly, under the scoreboard pressure of their own six-hitting. As the camera shows us a sumptuous view of dark volcanic hills, David Gower points out that the home side, at this stage, were 22-2.
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2nd over: England 25-0 (Salt 12, Buttler 13) Here’s Jason Holder for the first over of seam. Salt comes to the party with a slap for four, then tries to sweep a straight ball and is very nearly LBW. Powell reviews and Salt is saved by umpire’s call. Off the same ball, Buttler would be run out by a mile if there’d been a direct hit at the other end. Salt celebrates this double escape by swinging Holder for six. And England are ahead of the run rate!
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1st over: England 13-0 (Salt 1, Buttler 12) Salt almost perishes to the first ball of the innings, chopping Hosein’s left-arm spin into the ground and nearly playing on. He takes a single and then Jos Buttler, after one sighter, decides to go for it. A straight six off the back foot, a straight six off the front foot. When in Rome!
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The players are out there and it looks as if West Indies will start with spin too, in the form of Akeal Hosein. Phil Salt fielded very coolly in that innings. Now he just has to play the innings of his life.
West Indies finish with a ground record
20th over: West Indies 222-6 (Russell 8, Holder 18) The final over is bowled by Topley, who did very well with his three at the start, but he can’t stop Jason Holder whacking a length ball for a straight six, flipping a yorker for four, then slashing a wide one for six more. West Indies really have got ’em in sixes: 16 of them, whereas they managed a mere 14 fours. Their 222 is the highest score in a T20 international in Grenada, where 170 or so is the norm. And this after England’s bowlers had a dream start.
Pooran was immense, Powell explosive, Hope and Rutherford very handy, and Holder put the icing on the cake. England are almost out of the series already. Can they get close? Back in a few minutes to find out.
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19th over: West Indies 204-6 (Russell 7, Holder 1) Mills gave way to Curran, who started with a borderline wide – and Buttler let it through his legs! Well, Simon Burnton did mention nutmeg early on, and there it is. After another wide, Rutherford carts a slower ball over extra-cover for six, but perishes trying to do it again with the pull. He drags the ball to long-on, where Salt takes the calmest of catches. Whom would you like to see coming out to face you at this stage? Possibly not Dre Russ, who belts a six back over Curran’s head to bring up the 200.
WICKET! Rutherford c Salt b Curran 29 (West Indies 197-6)
That nippy bouncer does the trick again.
18th over: West Indies 183-5 (Rutherford 22, Russell 0) After reaching his fifty, Pooran went to another level. He was even swinging Rashid for six into the wind – not once, but twice. But when he went for a third one, he picked out Livingstone at long-on. He departed with a yell of fury, but when he cools down he’ll realise that he played a great innings. His 82 came off only 45 balls, the last 29 off eight, which is scarcely credible.
WICKET! Pooran c Livingstone b Rashid 82 (West Indies 183-5)
Caught on the boundary!
Carnage!
17th over: West Indies 168-4 (Pooran 68, Rutherford 21) It can’t be easy to shuffle the pack while wearing wicketkeeping gloves, but that’s the job Jos Buttler has given himself. Now he brings back Tymal Mills and it doesn’t go well. A slower ball, drop-kicked for four; a faster one, slapped for six; another slower one, pulled for four; a single; a long hop, cut for six; a full toss, edged for four. That’s 25 off this over, and all the good work of overs 13-16 has been undone.
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16th over: West Indies 143-4 (Pooran 54, Rutherford 10) Time for some more Rashid, so it looks as if he’s not going to bowl at the death. Pooran plays a delicate dab for four to reach a well-judged fifty. He’s held the innings together while still going pretty fast – 54 off 38 balls.
15th over: West Indies 135-4 (Pooran 48, Rutherford 8) Rutherford gets going with a handsome shot off Curran, slapped past point into a gap on the fence. After leaking six runs off the first two balls of the over, Curran bounces back again, conceding only one more off the bat and drawing an inside edge from Rutherford. England have won the past three overs, but they’re probably still behind overall.
14th over: West Indies 126-4 (Pooran 47, Rutherford 1) Back comes Moeen, bearing rippers. After being hit for four inside-out by Pooran, Mo befuddles Sherfane Rutherford twice in a row by getting lift as well as turn. Six off the over, only 11 off the last two, and Buttler still has two overs of Rashid up his sleeve.
13th over: West Indies 120-4 (Pooran 42) In his present form, Curran is not the first man you would turn to when you need a spot of thrift. On the other hand, he can hardly be more expensive than Atkinson (2-0-33-0). He starts calmly enough, conceding singles from his first two balls, then thinks he’s got Powell LBW. The question is whether the ball pitched outside leg. Buttler asks Curran that question, Curran says yes, they review, but he’s sadly mistaken. Still, he bounces back, digs one in and persuades Powell to send a top edge into the deep blue sky. “He’s a short man,” says Ian Bishop, who could say that about almost anyone, “but he’s got a nippy bouncer.,”
WICKET! Powell c Buttler b Curran 39 (West Indies 120-4)
Sam Curran makes the breakthrough!
12th over: West Indies 115-3 (Pooran 40, Powell 38) Back comes Livingstone. “Yay!” goes Powell. Livingstone is finding some turn, but his first ball to Powell goes for six over long-off, his second six over long-on. Livingstone responds with a wide, then another, which brings up the fifty partnership off only 25 balls. If you go at two runs per ball for more than about five minutes in T20s, you usually end up winning.
11th over: West Indies 97-3 (Pooran 38, Powell 24) As the halfway mark arrives, with West Indies 19 runs up on the same stage in the last game, Buttler decides to reintroduced Gus Atkinson. And Rovman Powell decides to flay his first ball for six. Pooran thinks he may as well join in with a flick for six over short fine. Still, Atkinson’s second over ends up being his thriftiest of the series so far: only 16 off it, 15 of them from the bat.
A caption tells us that Powell’s batting average in this format was 22 when he was in the ranks and has been 53 since he became captain. Averaging 53 in T20s is like averaging 99.94 in Tests.
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10th over: West Indies 81-3 (Pooran 32, Powell 15) Rashid continues, still asking the right questions, very nearly nabbing Powell as the googly draws a Harrow drive that dribbles past leg stump. Powell then produces a good answer, going for a slog-sweep and middling it. Pooran is just taking the single to give him the strike.
9th over: West Indies 73-3 (Pooran 30, Powell 9) After bowling one over for nine, Livingstone is hauled off and replaced by Tymal Mills. He’s the sixth bowler for England today, so maybe Sam Curran is now a specialist batsman. Rovman Powell is straight on the attack and would have a six if it were not for a fabulous save by Atkinson at deep midwicket, leaping to paw the ball back onto the field and then depositing himself on the Toblerone. Even fast bowlers are good fielders these days.
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8th over: West Indies 62-3 (Pooran 28, Powell 0) And then Rashid beats Rovman Powell, first ball, with a ripper of a leg-break. By the end of the over, Buttler has given him not one slip but two, and Rash’s figures are immaculate: 1-0-1-1 today and 9-0-37-5 in the series.
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WICKET!! Hope c Salt b Rashid 26 (West Indies 62-3)
Adil Rashid, what a maestro. Two dots, a single, and then he lures Hope into a slog-sweep that sails straight to the man at deep midwicket.
7th over: West Indies 61-2 (Pooran 27, Hope 26) With the Powerplay out of the way, Buttler turns not to Adil Rashid but to Liam Livingstone, with his all sorts. Or rather two sorts: off-breaks to Pooran, leggies to Hope (or, as spellcheck would like me to say, veggies). Pooran swings Livingstone’s second ball over long-on for yet another six, then takes a single to bring up the fifty partnership. It’s been outstanding.
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6th over: West Indies 52-2 (Pooran 19, Hope 25) Topley restores order, going for just three singles and a two. Hope has made seven off nine balls from Topley, 18 off seven from the other bowlers.
“Good evening.” says John Starbuck. “It looks rather as if England are hoping, against all expectations, that by swapping the bowlers around they’ll increase the chance of one of them, at the very least, coming up with the goods and saving the day. In a non-political quote: the triumph of hope over experience. Problem is, even if the bowlers do their jobs, there’s no guarantee the batters will.” Magnificent.
5th over: West Indies 47-2 (Pooran 17, Hope 22) We need to know what Shai Hope had for breakfast. As Gus Atkinson replaces Moeen, Hope sees a length ball and just eases it over long-on for another six. The shot is described as “ridiculously easy” by David Gower, which is rather like being complimented on your singing by Aretha Franklin. Pooran piles in with a clump for four and a pull for six. Poor old Atkinson goes for 18 off the over: the Windies, as usual, are getting ’em in sixes.
4th over: West Indies 29-2 (Pooran 6, Hope 15) Topley continues, still on the spot, allowing only singles – until the fifth ball, when he strays onto the pads and Pooran flicks him for a lordly four. This is already a useful fightback.
3rd over: West Indies 22-2 (Pooran 1, Hope 13) You know how Shai Hope tends to start slowly and speed up later? He’s not doing that today. He gets down low to slog Moeen back over his head for the first six of the day, then cuts him for four as Will Jacks misfields in the covers. The six produced a very classy crowd catch, taken with some nonchalance by a solidly built West Indies fan in a bucket hat.
Here’s our man at the ground. “It is absolutely roasting in Grenada today,” says Simon Burnton. “The ground is quite sheltered, and the three flags handily positioned directly in front of the press box are hanging limply, but there’ll be a bit of a breeze on the outfield. Still, it’ll be a sweaty one for the players in their pyjamas. Grenada, though, is a beautiful place and I recommend it to anyone looking for hills, hikes, waterfalls, beaches, friendly people, nutmeg or suntans.” That is an excellent list.
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2nd over: West Indies 10-2 (Pooran 0, Hope 2) Top-class from Topley, who was heading for a wicket maiden until Shai Hope jammed down on an in-ducker and picked up the first runs not to come from the bat of Brandon King.
WICKET! Mayers c Buttler b Topley 0 (West Indies 8-2)
Reece Topley strikes with his third ball with just about the perfect delivery – angled in, lifting, leaving the left-handed Mayers, and getting a thin edge.
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1st over: West Indies 8-1 (Mayers 0, Pooran 0) Brandon King had carried on where he left off with his 82 not out the other day. He slapped Moeen for four over backward point, and for four more over mid-off, but Moeen held his nerve, dragged his length back and got his man.
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WICKET!! King b Moeen 8 (West Indies 8-1)
Moeen does the trick! With an off-break that turned just enough to beat the bat.
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The players are out there and the new ball is not in the hands of any of those seamers. It’s going to be Moeen Ali.
Teams in full
West Indies 1 Brandon King, 2 Kyle Mayers, 3 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 4 Shai Hope, 5 Sherfane Rutherford, 6 Rovman Powell (capt), 7 Andre Russell, 8 Jason Hooper, 9 Gudakesh Motie, 10 Akeal Hosein, 11 Alzarri Joseph.
England 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (capt, wk), 3 Will Jacks, 4 Harry Brook, 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Moeen Ali, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Gus Atkinson, 10 Tymal Mills, 11 Reece Topley.
Teams in brief: West Indies
One change, Rovman Powell says, and it’s in the middle order – Sherfane Rutherford comes in for Shimron Hetmyer.
Teams in brief: England
England ring the changes with their attack. Reece Topley and Gus Atkinson come in, Chris Woakes and Rehan Ahmed drop out. So the third spinner will be Liam Livingstone, with a side order of Will Jacks, but England may not need either of them as they have four seamers, three of whom are left-armers.
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Toss: England win and bowl first
David Gower, in a rather Boycottish Panama hat, introduces the toss. Jos Buttler calls right and decides to chase.
Preamble
Evening everyone and welcome to another England cricket crisis. After carrying their one-day bravado into the five-day game with great success, they’ve forgotten how to display it in the formats that used to be their forte. They had a dismal World Cup, made drastic changes and discovered that even if you replace the cast, the script can remain the same. So far on their tour of the Caribbean they have lost four matches out of five. If they flop again tonight, they will have blown both the series with two games still to play.
The captain, wicketkeeper and star player, Jos Buttler, is only half-way back to form. The coach, Matthew Mott, is still making people wonder how on earth he managed to win a T20 World Cup. The batters keep turning fast starts into feeble finishes. The bowlers seem to nominate one of their number to get destroyed in each game. Two or three times it has been Sam Curran, a bowler-who-bats who is mostly batting better than he bowls.
When England found themselves needing a win to stay in the 50-over series, they dug deep and pulled it off. Can they do that again in the shortest format? They certainly can on paper. They just need to show some healthy disrespect to Gudakesh Motie, persuade Harry Brook to live up to his immense potential, and stop the West Indian batters hitting sixes at will.
Either way, it’s going to be dramatic. The toss is at 5pm GMT and I’ll be back soon after that with news of the teams.
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