T20 World Cup 2024: West Indies vs England, 42nd Match - Who Said What?

In what was an absolute enthralling cricket action in St. Lucia, the crowd were in treat as both the hosts West Indies (WI) and team England (ENG) scored heavily to make up for some of the lack of runs scored by batters in the initial stages of the T20 World Cup 2024. Notably, both sides clashed in the Super Eight stage on Thursday, June 20.

The defending champions after winning the toss chose to field first against an in-form West Indian side. Both the openers Brandon King and Johnson Charles started cautiously at first but the former was in some ominous mood and decided to get off his side to a flier. As a result, King raced off 23 off just 13 balls before getting retired hurt after attempting to smack Sam Curran through to the cover region. Thereafter, England had to toil till the 12th over of the game after spinner Moeen Ali (1/15) got them a crucial breakthrough by dismissing Johnson Charles (38 off 34 balls).

Skipper Rovman Powell and Nicholas Pooran led West Indies to a good total

The momentum was then carried forward by skipper Rovman Powell (36 off 17 balls) and Nicholas Pooran (36 off 32 balls) who continued his good mojo with the bat to steady the ship for West Indies. In the end, Sherfane Rutherford gave the final flourish with his handy batting to propel West Indies to 180/4 in their 20-over quota.

In reply, England's opener Phil Salt started hitting the bowlers for fun after laying a stable stand with skipper Jos Buttler before the latter got dismissed by the willy off-spinner Roston Chase in the eighth over. Soon after. Moeen Ali too got dismissed by Andre Russell which brought the hosts back into the game. However, Jonny Bairstow (48* off 26 balls) arrived and started scoring briskly with his able partner in Salt.

Phil Salt smacked 30 runs in the 16th Over

Until the 14th over, the match seemed to have hanged in balance with West Indies trying to contain the scoring rate in a bid to stay in the game but Phil Salt (87* off 47 balls) had other ideas as he smacked Romario Shepherd for 30 runs in the 16th over to take England on the brink of victory. By then it was too late for the hosts to drag the game back in their favour as England cruised to a comfortable eight-wicket win in the 18th over to make a statement for other teams who are yet to face them ahead.

In the end, West Indies beat Afghanistan by a mammoth 104 runs to make a statement for other teams before starting their Super Eight campaign in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 games.

Also Check: T20 World Cup 2024 Points Table

West Indies vs England, Match 42 - Who Said What?

Phil Salt, Player of the Match:

"Not looking too far ahead. Glad to contribute to the win. It was a little tough in the middle with the spin. But Bairstow spoke to me, and had those words in my mind. Did not take on the spinners, and cashed on at the back end. Lot of different factors that can affect an innings. There was a period where I did not face a lot of balls, but important to stick around and carry on. Jonny was fantastic, took pressure off me by taking calculated risk. Couldn't be happier as a team-mate."

Rovman Powell, Losing Captain:

"You have to look at it from batting perspective. We left 15-20 runs. Needed a better display as a bowling group. We are generally good in the last five overs. The execution wasn't good, need to re-evaluate. Hopefully King can pull through for the next two games. Those chances are always difficult. Credit to Salt, he always hurts us. We fell away from our plans to Phil. Need to look back and evaluate. Our destiny is in our own hands, just for us to continue playing some good cricket."

Jos Buttler, Winning Captain:

"That was a really good performance. We were practicing well, executed well today. [Chasing 180] We bowled well to restrict a powerful batting line up. We were smart with the bat, the guys were calculative. Bairstow-Salt partnership was very good. Jonny took the game deep and Salty broke it with that one over. That's why we brought Jof [Archer] back there with Pooran and Russell in. We wanted to use him to get a wicket or restrict them and make the back five really difficult. [Rashid] He has been all the time. He is our most important player. Has so much variations and restricts runs. Jonny batted at No. 4 today, class player for a really long time. You keep backing class players. Incredible, mature, senior player's innings. People say you learn when you lose, but you learn when you win as well. Important to put this to bed and focus now."