Key events
10th over: West Indies 63-3 (Pooran 13, Powell 9) Curran keeping it tight once more, West Indies doing nothing too hasty as they aim to build a platform. Time for DRINKS at the halfway point in the innings.
9th over: West Indies 60-3 (Pooran 12, Powell 9) Powell sweeps consecutive balls from Rashid with surprising delicacy for a man mountain.
Hello there Showbizguru, “OBO saves the day again.
In the perfect beach bar in St Maarten enjoying a ‘ Dutch ‘ cheroot and Happy Hour margarita ($5 a pop) and the tellies are all showing yee-haa American football.
Could be worse I suppose…”
I’m glad we’re here with a big juicy cherry for your perfect beach bar. Room for any rogue OBO-ers?
8th over: West Indies 54-3 (Pooran 10, Powell 5) Curran examines the bottom of his bowling boots and scampers in. On the button immediately with a maiden. Marcus Trescothick scribbles in his notebook on the balcony with one of those click-clack biros with the different colour inks.
7th over: West Indies 54-3 (Pooran 10, Powell 5) It’s Adil Rashid time, royal blue towel tucked in his waistband. Powell has his cap on in readiness. A wide wanders down the legside and otherwise West Indies fairly comfortably rotate the strike.
6th over: West Indies 44-3 (Pooran 5, Powell 1) A loose ball for Saqib puts four leg byes on the board for West Indies but a tight over otherwise and nearly removes Pooran’s ankles with a glorious yorker, which is well dug out.
5th over: West Indies 39-3 (Pooran 5, Powell 0) Pooran picks up four first ball, but Jofra follows up with five immaculate pencil point dots.
4th over: West Indies 35-3 (Pooran 1, Powell 0) Saqib gets his reward after sending down two wides and being driven gloriously by Chase for two fours. This is not easy bowling to face.
WICKET! Chase lbw Saqib 13 (West Indies 35-3)
Saqib, who has been struggling with the swinging ball, is suddenly pitch perfect with a wobble-seaming beauty that fires into Chase’s pad. Chase reviews with a frown, but the ball is trimming the top of the stumps, it is umpire’s call, and off he must trudge.
3rd over: West Indies 25-2 (Pooran 1, Chase 5) Lewis swivel-pulls Archer’s second ball for four, but that’s his lot as he immediately is bewitched by some kind of sorcery. Chase nearly falls first ball, slicing another lifter through the slips but just high enough that even Overton on take-off couldn’t grab it. There is, say the commentators, dampness in the pitch.
WICKET! Lewis c Salt b Archer (West Indies 20-2)
A brute of a delivery from Archer, spitting nastily. Lewis, as he twists to avoid it, gets a brush of glove on ball which then plops into Salt’s gloves
2nd over: West Indies 16-1 (Pooran 1, Lewis 4) Saqib continues to make the ball sing, drawing in King and swinging the white ball with gusto, down the legside for five wides, then wide on the off side, before crashing into Lewis’ pads. A third wide before the over is out.
WICKET! King c Livingstone b Saqib 1 (West Indies 6-1)
King has a wild hoick and the ball flies up, up and suddenly drops to a back-pedalling Liam Livingstone at mid-off.
1st over: West Indies 6-0 (King 1, Lewis 4). Jofra from the Joel Garner end, in his trimmed trousers and loose shirt. Gets movement straight away, troubling Lewis in particular. He picks up four by dabbing through where second slip might have been chewing his nails – not entirely sure that was on purpose.
Out come the players, Archer is drying his hands in the dust – and off we go.
Terrance Hinds has just been handed his first West Indies cap at the ripe age of 32. And very pleased he looks too.
Pitch report
They’ve had lots of rain in Barbados and the outfield is soggy. A different pitch today – but it looks just as perky and grass-bare, not many cracks. In the words of Brathwaite: bowlers beware!
Saqib Mahmood is in a bucket hat channelling his inner Burnage after yesterday’s four wickets. “We don’t make it too complicated, keep it as simple as possible, their batting order is pretty stacked.”
Carlos Brathwaite on what the West Indies unit could do to improve on Saturday’s somewhat wayward performance: “Yesterday as a bowling unit, especially from the Malcolm Marshall End, the seamers gave too much width. Can you be a bit tighter, limit the damage early in the power play, put a bit more pressure on them in overs five and six, and pick up the wickets at the back end?
West Indies XI
Three changes: Matthew Forde replaces Shamar Joseph, Roston Chase swaps in for Shimron Hetmyer, while Terrance Hinds must pull on the injured Andre Russell’s big boots.
West Indies: 1 Brandon King, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 4 Sherfane Rutherford, 5 Rovman Powell (c), 6 Romario Shepherd, 7 Roston Chase, 8 Terrance Hinds, 9 Gudakesh Motie,10 Akeal Hosein, 11 Matthew Forde
England XI
One change: Jofra Archer replaces Reece Topley.
England: 1 Phil Salt (wk), 2 Will Jacks, 3 Jos Buttler (c), 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Jacob Bethell, 6 Sam Curran, 7 Dan Mousley, 8 Jamie Overton, 9 Saqib Mahmood, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Jofra Archer
England win the toss and will bowl!
Buttler calls correctly, again. “We are going to bowl first again because we put in a good performance and want to repeat it.”
News on Reece Topley? “He’s doing ok, he’s going to miss today with Jofra Archer coming in but it doesn’t look like anything serious.”
Why is he batting at No.3? “An opportunity to do something different and gives Jacks an opportunity to try it in the international game. We’re having a look at the balance and see how it goes.”
win the toss and will
The TNT studio is open. Someone give Steven Finn and Sam Billings a chair.
Preamble
Good evening/afternoon/morning, wherever you are. We roll into this second T20, of a five-match series, with the scorch marks from England’s smokin victory last night still on the grass. Phil Salt (103) and Jacob Bethell (58), two of England’s bombastic Barbados boys, ensured that England cruised past West Indies with 3.1 overs left. Can they do it again? Play starts at 8pm GMT, do join us to find out.
