West Indies vs England 3rd T20I Review: The destructive English side finally delivered. Jos Butler and his team secured a heist in St. George’s last night.
Before the toss, both teams were equally favorite. After winning the toss England opted to bowl first. England made a couple of changes bringing in Reece Topley and Gus Atkinson in place of Rehan Ahmed and Woakes. While WI brought in Rutherford in place of Hetmyer.
Moeen and Topley gave a solid start to their team dismissing both the openers in their first overs. WI were 8/2 after 2 overs. From there Pooran and Shai Hope took charge batted well and scored freely. WI were 52/2 after 6. West Indian batters continued to dominate and went on to score a massive 221 in 20 overs. It was a brilliant display of T20 batting by Pooran (82), Powell (39, Rutherford (29), and Hope (26).
Chasing 222 was never going to be easy with the kind of form England had but Skipper Butler and Philip Salt came out with a positive intent and took on the West Indian bowlers especially dominating their main Bowler Akeal Hossein. Butler smashed 2 sixes in his first over and straight away put them under pressure. Both batters went hard in the powerplay and scored 73 in the first 6 overs. The chase was very much on then and England looked the favourite now. Butler lost his wicket after scoring a fifty and England were 116-1 after 2 overs. Will Jacks got out early to Gudakesh Moties bringing West Indies back into the game. The chase suddenly started to look difficult as they needed 103 runs from the last 7 overs. With the kind of Batters England had it was always possible. From there it was all Phili Salt, Livingstone, and Harry Brook show as the 3 batters took England home. Philip Salt played his career best Innings scoring 109 not out of 56 balls hitting 9 sixes and 4 fours. Livingstone played the much-needed cameo of 30 runs hitting 3 huge sixes. Livingstone got out in the 18th over and Harry Brook came in to bat England needed 37 runs off Just 11 balls. Brook was ready for the challenge and smashed a 7-ball 31 Not out chasing the total a ball before. Brook hit 4 sixes and 1 four in his Innings. In the final over England needed 21 runs and Russel had the responsibility of defending these runs. Brook took on him and scored 24 runs off his 5 balls taking his team to victory. It was an actual replay of what Glen Maxwell did to team India in the 3rd T20 in the last over of Prasidh Krishna. This knock might also help Brook in the upcoming IPL auction on 19 December.
Both teams meet again for the 4th T20 on 20th December. England’s win has made the series lively again.
