England demolishes toothless Windies

It was expected to be an exciting battle between the West Indies’ flair and a capable England attack but was reduced to a no-contest following a horrendous batting display by the holder, which was skittled out for just 55 runs in inside 15 overs.

The West Indies batters only looked for big shots and it became their undoing as they seemed to have forgotten that rotating the strike was important when boundaries were difficult to come by. England bowlers were persistent with their line and length and were rewarded as West Indies managed its second lowest T20 total.

England knocked off the required runs in 8.2 overs, but not before losing wickets in a cluster. Jason Roy (11), Jonny Bairstow (9), Moeen Ali (3) and Liam Livingstone (1) struggled to adjust to the slowness of the wicket that had made stroke making quite difficult. Left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein (2/24) made a good impression with his quick balls and excellent fielding.

Jos Buttler (24 not out) and skipper Eoin Morgan (7 not out) saw England through and ensured there was no more drama in the contest.

Such results do make a difference if the net-run-rate comes into play at the later stage of the tournament. Earlier, Rashid gave away just two runs in the 14 balls he bowled and wiped off the middle and lower-order, carrying forward the good start Moeen had provided after Morgan invited the Caribbeans to bat.

Moeen ended his spell in a splendid manner, bowling as many as 18 dot balls in his four overs while conceding just 17 runs. The West Indies batters kept looking for boundaries and fell by the wayside one after another.Chris Gayle (13), who came in at No.3 was the only West Indies batter who got to double digits.

Brief scores: West Indies 55 in 14.2 overs (A Rashid 4/2) lost to England 56/4 in 8.2 overs (J Buttler 24*)