The spin-mastery of Adil Rashid (2.2-0-2-4) and early scalps by Moeen Ali (2/17) and Tymal Mills (2/17) have ensured England a dominating win against West Indies in their respective first game. The defending champions got all-out for an ultra-low score of 55 in 14.3 overs. Though West Indies bowlers tried to restrict England by scalping wickets regularly, the target they had set was too low to defend.
While chasing a target of mere 56 runs, England stumbled a lot by losing the wickets of Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali inside the powerplay. Even Liam Livingstone was dismissed soon by a stunning catch by Akeal Hosein. England was 39/4 at one point. Then, captain Eoin Morgan and vice-captain Jos Buttler (24*) made sure not to lose a wicket and scored 56/4 in 8.2 overs.
West Indies had put on a forgettable show with the bat in the first innings. It lost the wickets of Evin Lewis, Lendl Simmons, Shimron Hetmyer and Chris Gayle inside the powerplay. The fall of wickets didn’t stop even after powerplay as Adil Rashid bowled a brilliant spell to dismiss most of the middle-order and lower-order batsmen of Windies. As everyone failed to contribute with the bat, West Indies recorded its second-lowest total in T20Is. Overall, it is the third-lowest total recorded in the history of the T20 World Cup.
With this win, England recorded a good net run rate (+3.97) and will play against Bangladesh on October 27. On the flip side, West Indies will face South Africa on October 26.