West Indies captain Rovman Powell struck an unbeaten 31 and produced an impressive partnership with Andre Russell to lead the hosts to an emphatic four-wicket victory over England in series-opening T20 in Bridgetown.
Phil Salt (40) got England off to a flying start after sharing a 77-run partnership with Jos Buttler (39) inside the opening six overs, having lost the toss and being sent to bat first, only for the West Indies to hit back and bowl the visitors out for 171 within 19.3 overs.
Rehan Ahmed (3-39) took two wickets in successive balls to leave West Indies struggling at 123-6 in reply, following a short weather delay, with Adil Rashid (2-14) also impressing as he marked his 100th T20I appearance by became becoming the first England men’s player to reach 100 T20I wickets.
Adil Rashid (centre) claimed the wickets of Kyle Mayers (35) and Shimron Hetmyer (1)
Powell and Russell (29no) then led the charge with an unbeaten 49-run seventh-wicket stand from just 21 balls, as the West Indies chased down their victory target with 11 balls to spare to move 1-0 up in the five-match series.
More to follow…
What’s next?
The five-match T20 international now heads to Grenada for games two and three (Thursday and Saturday, both at 5.30pm).
They then move to Trinidad and Tobago for the final two fixtures (Tuesday December 19 and Thursday December 21, both at 10pm).