Recent Match Report – England vs West Indies 1st T20I 2021/22
West Indies 104 for 1 (King 52*) beat England 103 (Holder 4-7) by nine wickets
Barely a week after the Test team lost ten wickets for 56 runs to sign off from the Ashes with a whimper, Eoin Morgan’s T20I men latched onto the theme of decay and futility with their own apology of a performance at Kensington Oval.
From a nadir of 49 for 7, England just about cadged a triple-figure total, but their eventual 103 was still their fourth-lowest in the format, and all too easily picked off by an opposition that had themselves been routed for 55 in their most recent meeting, at the T20 World Cup in November.
As the lights kicked in, so did West Indies’ openers. It took until the ninth over for Adil Rashid to break through with a legbreak that ripped past Shai Hope’s outside edge, but by that stage he and King had knocked off 52 runs, exactly half of the requirement. There was no looking back from there.
Powerplay power failure
The high point of England’s Powerplay came from the fifth ball of Sheldon Cottrell’s first over. After taking four balls to gauge the pace of a high-kicking surface, Jason Roy galloped down the pitch to slam a half-tracker through midwicket for six, only for Cottrell to respond one ball later by plucking out Roy’s middle stump with a fuller-length inswinger.
That set the tone for a startling first six overs, in which a succession of England batters were lined up for the sucker punch – unable to nudge the singles to defer their impending fate, and all too complicit in their own demises as Cottrell and Holder piled in on an impeccable line and length.
Though Holder missed out on the hat-trick, that score had not progressed by the end of his next over, after back-to-back maidens including a reprieve for Morgan after an erroneous caught-behind. James Vince then clattered 14 runs in the space of five balls, including a top-edged pull for six over fine leg, before following Roy’s lead by making it six and out, and leathering a half-tracker from Cottrell straight to short cover. England were in the soup at 24 for 4.
Scrounge a score, any score
One over later, his eye seemingly in, Morgan slammed Romario Shepherd up and over extra cover for England’s third six of the innings … only to then become their third six-and-out of the innings too, as Shepherd slipped in a well-pitched offcutter, and Pollard in the covers made no mistake.
No messing from the outset
England needed wickets to have any hope of staying in touch, but that slight hint of desperation played into the hands of West Indies’ openers, Hope and King, who found the singles from the outset that had eluded their opponents, as well as a boundary an over in the first four to pick off a quarter of the requirement almost before England were able to react.
At least Dawson slotted into the faultlessly professional standards that England have left on ice for the past three years. He was able to exploit the overspin on offer to twirl straight through his four overs for 12 runs, without conceding a single boundary.
The quicks, however, skidded all too comfortably onto the bat, as Pollard had hoped they might after choosing to chase under the lights, and Pooran’s appearance at No.3 did little to encourage England that a Dubai-style collapse was forthcoming. A run-a-ball denouement was all that West Indies needed. No panic, no rush, just a comfortable countdown to a preordained win.
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket