England v Windies, Only T20I: 5 Talking Points

England and Windies clashed at Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street on Saturday in one-off T20 before gearing up for the ODI series. Windies are the champions of the shortest format of the game and they once again showed their prowess as they got better of the home side by 21 runs. England lost wickets at regular intervals and despite Alex Hales scoring at the rate of knots they never got going.

Eoin Morgan led England side opted to bowl first as Evin Lewis and Chris Gayle provided Windies with a brilliant start. The visitors posted 106 in first 10 overs and threatened to bat the hosts out of the game. But the bowlers came back extremely well to restrict Windies to 176. In reply, England started off well thanks to Hales but kept losing wickets from other end courtesy Sunil Narine. Eventually, they fell short and got bowled out on 155 as the champions continued to rule their favourite format.

Here we bring you the 5 talking points of the only T20 game:

1. Quick fire start from Lewis and Gayle

After being invited to bat first, Lewis and Gayle started off cautiously only to launch a brutal attack on English bowlers. Both brought their Caribbean Premier League (CPL) form to the fore as the bowlers looked clueless. They scored 48 runs in the last three overs of powerplay. The opening pair of St. Kitts in CPL took a particular liking to Tom Curran as they amassed 32 runs off his first couple of overs. Windies added 106 runs in first 10 overs and looked good to score well over 200. Gayle scored 40 off 21 and Lewis added another half-century to his kitty with 51 off 28 deliveries. Both hit 9 fours and 7 gigantic sixes together.

2. Poor running from Chris Gayle

Windies opening pair had added 72 runs in the powerplay courtesy Lewis and Gayle but the partnership was broken through run-out and the poor running from the latter. Gayle dabbed the third delivery of the seventh over to point and took off for a single but for the reason only known to him, he decided to jog. The ball went straight to Jason Roy who threw the ball to Liam Plunkett and he broke the stumps. The laziness of the Universal boss proved to be the reason of his undoing and was sent back to the dugout in the most unfortunate way.

3. Adil Rashid and Plunkett runs through Windies line-up

Windies had got off to a superlative start and scored 106 in first 10 overs. But Plunkett and Rashid came together and bowled superbly to make a stunning comeback. Plunkett scalped the dangerous Evin Lewis, Marlon Samuels and Kieron Pollard through his variations as the Caribbean side lost their way. The leggie Rashid made sure Windies never got back as they could add only 70 runs in the last 10 overs. He spun a web around Chadwick Walton, Carlos Brathwaite and Narine. The figures of both were in contrast with other bowlers which read 3/27 for Plunkett and 3/25 for Rashid.

4. Hales blazes through Windies bowlers

England got off to the worst possible start as they lost Jason Roy off the first ball of the over. But Alex Hales was unperturbed and launched an assault in the second and third over itself in which he hit 7 fours and a six. England raced to 43 after 3 overs and looked set to chase a hefty total. Unfortunately, his innings was cut short by the opponent skipper Carlos Brathwaite. Hales was cleaned up by him on 43 in the last over of the powerplay.

5. Match winning spell of Sunil Narine

Sunil Narine came on to bowl in the 5th over of the innings and spun a web around England batsmen. First, he snaffled the skipper Morgan who tried to reverse sweep only to lob it up to short third man fielder. Narine also made sure the pressure was built from his end which led to the fall of wickets from the other. Windies nailed the final nail in the coffin in the 16th over when Narine, bowling his last over, as David Willey was stumped to leave his team 7 down. The off-spinner finished with the magical figures of 2/15 from his 4 overs which earned him the Man of the Match award.