WI vs ENG 2024/25, WI vs ENG 1st T20I Match Report, November 9, 2024

by Junna Base November 10, 2024

England 183 for 2 (Salt 103*, Bethell 58*) bat West Indies 182 for 9 (Pooran 38, Shepherd 35*, Motie 33, Mahmood 4-34) by eight wickets

A superb unbeaten century from Phil Salt led England to a convincing eight-wicket win over West Indies and a 1-0 lead in their five-match T20I series in Barbados.

Saqib Mahmood posted a career-best performance of 4 for 34, including three wickets in the powerplay and a tight over at the death, but in the meantime the West Indies powered their way through three key partnerships at lightning speed, setting a high target for England even though they didn’t had managed 117 for 8.

Nicholas Pooran, who top-scored for the hosts, and captain Rovman Powell combined to score 41 runs off just 17 balls, but it was Pooran and Andre Russell who braved a steady stream of wickets to add 39 from 26 and then were bottom Gudakesh Motie and Romario Shepherd made 49 off 26 to get the hosts going.

However, their efforts were ultimately in vain given Salt’s remarkable 103 in which he batted just 54 balls and attacked from the start, gaining 22 runs after overtaking Shamar Joseph and never looked back.

They were two second-rate boys who did well as Salt, who spent six of his teenage and youth years in Barbados, shared an unbroken 107-run stand with Jacob Bethell, who made his first T20I fifty on enthusiastic support from support the crowd as I was born and raised in Barbados until I was 13 years old.

When Salt hit five consecutive boundaries against Joseph in the fourth over of the run-chase to take his side past the 50 mark, it looked all England. He added to his own half-century from 25 balls with the second of three sixes that hit Motie’s first over, crunching over deep midwicket before Will Jacks scored the third long-on over. Jacks fell on the next ball, threw away the middle stump and tried to sweep it, but by that time England had finished the powerplay on 73 for 1, compared to the West Indies’ 58 for 3. Motie couldn’t stay away from the action, his brilliant one-handed strike at third displacing Jos Buttler, batting at number 3 on his return to action after a five-month injury layoff, for a first-ball duck.

For all his big hits, Salt’s deft four-ball hit just past Joseph’s point in the ninth over was prettier than any of his four sixes up to that moment, and underlined the range of his shots that defined his innings. Bethell mimicked the shot, slightly better than Shepherd when he entered just his third innings in T20Is, and played the perfect supporting role to Salt, his unbeaten 58 from 36 balls, including a stylish six-over cover on the penultimate ball .

He immediately followed with the winning runs, pulling Shepherd away for two to secure victory with 3.1 overs to spare. Having moved into the nineties, Salt swung Shepherd to square leg where the ball shot through the fingertips of Sherfane Rutherford as he stumbled over the boundary for six more runs before his best four on the ground in the last over of the game. It was Salt’s third century in T20Is, all played in the Caribbean against the West Indies.

Mahmood struck early when Brandon King, a centurion as West Indies won the third and final ODI for a 2-1 series win, hit his fifth ball – the 11th of the game – straight into short cover. In his next over, Mahmood had two wickets in as many balls when Bethell made an excellent low catch running in from the rope at deep back square to remove Evin Lewis and then lured Shimron Hetmyer with an excellent length ball, who moved away ever so slightly it got an advantage all the way to Salt. It was quite a comeback from Mahmood, who was playing only his third T20I since January 2022 after suffering two stress fractures in his back. His other two games in this format had returned 2 for 21 and no wickets for 37 against Australia in September, but now he had 3 for 12 from two overs.

Meanwhile, fellow seamer Reece Topley conceded 20 runs from 15 balls, including Powell’s four runs through deep third and then six runs over square leg just before Topley slipped on his run and clutched his right knee. Topley was visibly limping when a brief rain shower began, sending the players off the field for just over half an hour. Topley returned after the break but was greeted by Powell with a lofted drive for a six and that was enough to send the bowler off the field for the rest of the innings with a knee injury, which later turned out to be Jamie Overton’s third over . Mahmood returned to worsen his numbers as he conceded 18 runs in his third over. Pooran bounced over the fence with a wide long-on, hit four balls through deep back point and swung over deep midwicket for another six.

Adil Rashid went on the attack in the seventh over, striking with his second ball, Powell went big again but was unable to fend off a leaping Overton just inside the boundary at long-on. Despite handing over the wicketkeeping gloves to Salt, returning captain Buttler pounced with the reflexes of a cat to take a brilliant one-handed catch at slip in Rashid’s next over, dismissing Rutherford. Pooran and Russell formed a challenging partnership with Russell Rashid hitting successive sixes and moving on to a 16-ball 30. But Liam Livingstone managed to break their connection when he reacted when he saw his third ball fly back over his head for a six with Russell caught at deep cover by Dan Mousley. Pooran followed with 38, falling to another spectacular catch from Buttler, who spun high and spun in the air at Overton’s covers.

The West Indies seemed determined to go down in flames. Rashid secured his third goal when he pinned Akeal Hosein with a superb leg break in the second attempt. But just when it looked like the hosts’ defense would fail, Motie made his way to the crease at number 10 and scored 16 runs from the first three balls he faced, including two consecutive sixes off Rashid. He had raced to 33 in just 14 balls when Mahmood caught him at the deep midwicket boundary and claimed his fourth wicket of the game. This ended Motie’s ninth wicket duel with Shepherd, who finished unbeaten on 35 off 22, with their union helping the West Indies to a result that had previously seemed so unlikely.

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