England level Windies series with 75-run victory in fourth T20 – as it happened | England in West Indies 2023 – MyCyberBase
Key events
Time for me to go and lie down in a darkened room. That was something very special. And it was just what the game needed, as the series is all square at 2-2 and both sides have the chance to win it on Thursday, back at the ground known as the Lara, in the fifth act of this pulsating drama.
Simon Burnton’s match report will be along just as soon as he works out how many records are lying shattered on the press-box floor. Thursday’s decider will be covered by Rob Smyth, so I’ll just say thanks for your company and correspondence and a very happy Christmas.
The IPL owners now have some idea how the bosses at Decca Records felt when The Beatles went to number one.
Phil Salt wants to know if they can redo the IPL auction please.
— Lawrence Booth (@BoothCricket) December 19, 2023
Here’s Jos Buttler, and he’s buzzing. “Fantastic win,” he tells Gower “It was like being at the Hong Kong Sixes, wasn’t it? Really proud of the group. To play with the bravery that we have, and the skill level to be able to execute it – delighted for the guys. It’s a very confident changing room.”
Having to play second fiddle to this fellow Salt? “Really happy doing that,” Jos replies with a chuckle. “Very enjoyable batting with him – we’ve done it in The Hundred and at Lancashire, we know each other’s game really well and he’s playing brilliantly, so good luck to him.”
And now it’s a grand final. “Really fitting. Both teams have played some great cricket throughout the series.”
The player of the match is … Phil Salt, for the second time in four days. He looks rather solemn standing on the podium, perhaps reflecting on his performance as a keeper. But when David Gower asks “Dare I say, are you enjoying it?” he laughs and says “I am!”
He adds that he tweaked his game a bit, “more on the mental side”. Did he enjoy having the gloves as well? “I did!”
England are back in business. They’ve banished the World Cup blues, and the disappointment of losing the 50-over series on this tour. They could still lose this series, but even if they do it feels as if they’ve turned a corner, and emerged as a half-new team. Phil Salt has very definitely arrived (though not as a wicketkeeper). It’s hard to see Jonny Bairstow getting back in the starting XI for a while.
A good spot from Tom Bowtell. “Wondering,” he says, “whether West Indies’ 192 is the highest score (in all international cricket?) without any batter facing more than 25 balls? We’re all too excited to check but I bet it is.” You may well be right.
That was a gobsmacking game of cricket. England made the biggest total in their 18-year T20 history. And then West Indies got well ahead of the rate – but kept losing wickets. We’ve seen 459 runs scored in 35.3 overs.
Every single England player made a significant contribution. Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Will Jacks and Liam Livingstone all batted well, Salt exceptionally so. The six bowlers all took at least one wicket. And the odd man out, Harry Brook, fielded like a demon. His only mistake was to let a two turn into a four with a fumble on the rope, and he made up for it next ball by catching Andre Russell.
ENGLAND WIN BY 75 RUNS! TO SQUARE THE SERIES
Russell c Brook b Topley 51 (West Indies 192 all out) And that is that! Russell holes out the ball after reaching a fine fifty.
15th over: West Indies 182-9 (Russell 41, Motie 0) Dre Russ still believes. This over is a nice little duel between him and Adil Rashid. Six, dot, dot, six, dot, leg-bye (and missed stumping). That’s 13 sixes in this innings and 32 in the match. West Indies need 86 from the last five overs, which is precisely what England scored when they won the last game.
14th over: West Indies 169-9 (Russell 29, Motie 0) Topley’s third over is a triumph: one wicket for five runs. West Indies need 99 from six overs, which would be almost impossible with wickets in hand.
Wicket! Forde c Buttler b Topley 3 (West Indies 169-9)
Forde gives catching practice to Buttler at extra-cover. That’s the end of a debut innings that lasted five balls and featured some interesting contortions.
13th over: West Indies 164-8 (Russell 24, Forde 3) Hosein had just hit a four, a skimmer through the covers, but on the whole that over was a win for Curran: one wicket and a mere nine runs. Scrooge-like!
Meanwhile, I’m, a bit behind with the mail. “If this was the 2004 edition of Michael Vaughan’s Cricket Manager PC game,” said Tom van der Gucht half an hour ago, “I would bring Rashid and Ahmed on for some high-risk/reward bowling in the hope that the Windies would punch themselves out going for 6s, only to get out with mishits etc. Then again, if this was stick cricket, I’d be bowling dibble-dobbler medium pacers (such as Brook) as they’re nigh on impossible to time, let alone hit boundaries. Now I think about it, I imagine captaining an international team is more challenging than I’d previously realised.”
WICKET! Hosein c Moeen b Curran 15 (West Indies 160-8)
Curran’s bouncer, aimed outside off, is too good for Hosein, who toe-ends a pull and gives Moeen a simple catch at deep square.
12th over: West Indies 155-7 (Russell 22, Hosein 11) Rashid goes for 13 off an over! His leg-break beats both the bat and the gloves of Phil Salt, bringing three wides, and then he goes the other way, with a googly, which is five wides. Has Rashid ever done that before? Does tomorrow’s paper have room for all the unprecedented things we have seen here?
West Indies need 113 off 48 balls. It’s just within the realms of possibility, but they will need luck as well as skill and nerve.
11th over: West Indies 142-7 (Russell 21, Hosein 8) Russell follows the six with a cut for four, but after that Rehan does well, just three singles and one dot. West Indies need 126 off nine overs at a rate of exactly 14. Their hopes rest on the powerful shoulders of Russell.
Rehan Ahmed is on a hat-trick. So what do you think happens? Yes, it’s a six, whirled over the covers by Dre Russ.
Drinks: it’s all happening
10th over: West Indies 129-7 (Russell 9, Hosein 7) When Adil Rashid is bowling, it’s a different ballgame. Even with a six off the final ball of this over, chipped over midwicket by Akeal Hosein, Rash has figures of 2-0-11-1. On a day of continual astonishment, he’s just doing his usual thing.
At drinks, West Indies are almost up with the required rate. But they don’t have enough wickets to play with … do they?
9th over: West Indies 120-7 (Russell 7, Hosein 0) Buttler showed some faith in Rehan Ahmed, keeping him on for a second over, and it looked like backfiring as he went for one, six, one, six. But Rehan has the same knack Sam Curran has, and Ian Botham had back in the day – the ability to make things happen. He has the figures to prove it: 2-0-29-2.
WICKET! Holder c Jacks b Rehan 0 (West Indies 120-7)
Two in two for Rehan!
WICKET! Rutherford LBW b Rehan 36 (West Indies 120-6)
Well bowled Rehan! After taking some fearful stick, he sticks at it and bowls a straight ball which Rutherford, going for a reverse pull, misses. “You’ve got to give that!” says Salt behind the stumps. The umpire obliges. Rutherford reviews, in vain: it’s plumb.
Rashid: 1-0-2-1
8th over: West Indies 106-5 (Rutherford 28, Russell 0) Sure enough, Rash works his magic. There’s always someone who comes to the party without his dancing shoes, and here it was poor old Rovman Powell. He faced six balls and didn’t hit a single boundary!
WICKET! Powell b Rashid 4 (West Indies 106-5)
Rash produces the killer googly.
Here’s Adil Rashid, the thriftiest operator in this series. Can he stem the flow?
Hundred up! Off 40 balls
7th over: West Indies 102-4 (Rutherford 28, Powell 2) On comes Rehan Ahmed, the first of England’s three leg-spinners. He’s very good, but he goes for three fours in a row!
The Powerplay goes for 87!
6th over: West Indies 87-4 (Rutherford 15, Powell 1) That is quite a Powerplay. At this rate, West Indies are either going to win or be all out inside 12 overs. After the wicket, there are four leg byes and then Rutherford belts another slower ball for four. Jos Buttler has used four bowlers and they’ve all taken a wicket.
WICKET! Hope c Salt b Woakes 16 (West Indies 78-4)
Another one! Woakes goes for a back-of-a-length slower ball and persuades Hope to send another top edge up into the night sky. It’s an easy catch for Salt.
5th over: West Indies 74-3 (Hope 12, Rutherford 11) So West Indies have lost their main man. But they still have Hope, who square-drives for four. And he’s been joined by Sherfane Rutherford, who has faced three balls and already hit a cut for four and a drive for six. Sixteen off the over.
“Conditions,” says Ian Bishop, “have been good for batting.”
Pooran, facing Curran’s first ball, fancied another six. He got underneath it and, unlike the one Woakes caught, this one came down from the stratosphere quite rapidly. Brook, at long-on, had to race in and then dive forwards, such a hard thing to pull off. And he made it look like a piece of cake.
WICKET!! Pooran c Brook b Curran 39 (West Indies 58-3)
A stunning innings ends with a stunning catch.
4th over: West Indies 58-2 (Pooran 39, Hope 7) Shai Hope, being more orthodox than most, takes two balls to play himself in. And then he lofts Topley over long-on for yet another six.
That brings up West Indies’ fifty off 20 balls. Ten off the over, which, as Guy was saying, is what passes for economy these days. At this stage England were 36-0.
3rd over: West Indies 48-2 (Pooran 36, Hope 0) On comes Chris Woakes. If any seamer can restore order, he can. Dot, dot, dot … four, six, six! One of them a gorgeous straight drive, more of a push really. Pooran has 36 off 11 balls. Salt is keeping wicket.
An email! I was wondering if everybody was too gobsmacked to put pen to paper. “Quiet night of cricket going on here, then,” says Guy Hornsby. “I wrote you an email at the interval in the third game wondering aghast what had become of this England white-ball team, only for Salt to make me happily eat my words. He’s been at it again tonight, with some great support. This score seems from another planet but you know the West Indies will not die wondering. What a time to be a bowler, where going at 10s is match-winning stuff. Rashid and Ahmed feel key tonight.”
2nd over: West Indies 32-2 (Pooran 20, Hope 0) So after two overs, Moeen has one for 20 and Topley has one for 12. England, who hit 19 sixes themselves, have already conceded three. It’s cricket, but not as we know it.
WICKET! Mayers c Woakes b Topley 12 (West Indies 32-2)
This is ridiculous. Kyle Mayers goes for death and glory: a shovel for four, a slog for six, then a skyer … The ball stays up in the air for ages, comes down, bobble out of Chris Woakes’s hands – and he catches the rebound!
1st over: West Indies 20-1 (Pooran 20, Mayers 0) Crisis? What crisis? Nicholas Pooran comes in at No 3, plays himself in for one ball, then launches a reverse sweep for four, and another. Then a big swing for six, and another! West Indies are well ahead of the rate.
That was the first ball of the innings. King tried to cut Moeen over the ring, but failed to spot that the fielder at short third was the tallest man on the field, Reece Topley. He reached up, as John Arlott would have said, like a man taking a can of baked beans off the top shelf in the supermarket.
WICKET! King c Topley b Ali 0 (West Indies 0-1)
Oh dear.
Do West Indies have any chance? Well, it is possible to make 250 in a T20 game and lose, as they should know because they did it in March. Whether you can make 267 and lose remains to be seen.
ENGLAND CLOSE ON 267!
20th over: England 267-3 (Livingstone 54, Brook 6) The dubious honour of bowling the last over goes to Jason Holder. He delivers three good balls in a row – and still the over goes for 17. Liam Livingstone bludgeons the first ball for four on the offside, then pulls a full toss for four to reach a fine fearless fifty, and finished by snicking four more.
The run rate stayed at 13 almost throughout. Nobody failed: the lowest completed score was Will Jacks’ 24, and that was an electrifying cameo. Jos Buttler and Phil Salt put on another hundred partnership, Salt made another hundred, and Livingstone danced on the bowlers’ grave. England have beaten their previous best in T20s – 241 against New Zealand in Napier four years ago – by a cool 26 runs.
Cometh the hour, cometh the quote we will always remember. “Fair play,” says Livingstone, “to Salty.”
England reach 250 for the first time in a T20
19th over: England 250-3 (Livingstone 41, Brook 3) And in comes … Harry Brook! Who made 31 off seven balls the other day. He gets off to a relatively sedate start here, with a single off a leading edge and a more convincing effort for two. That takes England to 250 for the first time ever in this format. In the 1960s, they didn’t always manage that in a day.
, 2023-12-20 12:57:29 ,
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