England beat West Indies by seven wickets to go 2-0 up in T20 series – as skipper Jos Buttler smashes brutal 83 off just 44 balls to put four months of injury frustration behind him
Jos Buttler blitzed 83 from 45 balls as England thrashed West Indies once again – this time by seven wickets – to go 2-0 up in the Twenty20 series.
England captain Buttler’s hitting masterclass under the lights at the Kensington Oval helped him place four months of injury frustration behind him.
Arriving at the crease for the second ball of a chase of 159 after Saturday night centurion Phil Salt punched Akeal Hosein straight to cover in a reminder of how quickly fortunes can change, the 34-year-old simply toyed with the Windies attack during a stand of 129 with Will Jacks in which his second-wicket partner contributed 38.
Buttler had also been dismissed for a golden duck on his return, but was soon showing glimpses of his imperious best with six sixes, powering one straight hit into the media centre during a Romario Shepherd over that cost 21 to bring up the team 50 and trumping that by hitting Gudakesh Motie clean out of the ground in the next.
‘We weren’t under huge pressure with the run-rate, and Jacksy got a few away which was great at the time when I was batting pretty slowly,’ Buttler said.
Jos Buttler blitzed 83 from 44 balls as England thrashed West Indies once again
Buttler’s rampant form with the bat in hand earned England a victory that puts them 2-0 up in the Twenty20 series
’It took the pressure off me. I wasn’t expecting to come out and middle it from ball one but I thought after 10 or 12 balls, I started to see it much better.
‘The position we were in, I wanted to just keep going, express myself and have some fun.’
Indeed, Buttler’s final 80 runs occupied 35 deliveries and he appeared set for a second T20 hundred in an England shirt when he was spilled at extra cover by Sherfane Rutherford. However, he failed to capitalise on that life, skying the very next ball from Shepherd to long-on.
On what was otherwise a near perfect day, however, he won consecutive tosses at one of the world’s great chasing grounds and saw West Indies scramble to 158 for eight in what was generally a good performance in the field other than a couple of costly misfields and the coughing up of 19 runs in wides.
But the taking of regular wickets, including the first two in international cricket for Warwickshire off-spinner Dan Mousley, kept the hosts to a total that Buttler made look miniscule.
And when Liam Livingstone concluded the aerial bombardment with a six of his own off Shepherd over the off-side, England were home with a whopping 5.1 overs unused.
Although the match began on time at 4pm, the heavy grey cloud cover loitering in Bridgetown required the use of floodlights, making it another invaluable toss.
And Buttler responded to the prime bowling conditions, employing two slips and even donning the helmet to post himself at short leg when Archer was charging in from the Joel Garner end.
Warwickshire off-spinner Dan Mousley (left) took his first two wickets in international cricket
England pace bowler Jofra Archer (right) took one wicket from four overs in Barbados
At the other end, Saqib Mahmood went hunting wickets again fresh from a career-best four for 34 in England’s landslide victory on Saturday night, but found the greatest challenge to be controlling the lavish swing.
Getting things right coincided with further rewards as Brandon King miscued one full ball and another nipped back off the seam to pin the recalled Roston Chase leg before.
In between, Archer celebrated his return in place of the injured Reece Topley by producing a snorter that flew to wicketkeeper Salt off the outside edge of Evin Lewis’ bat.
From 35 for three, the home team slipped into self-preservation mode, as it became clear that they would not match the nine an over total of 24 hours earlier.
West Indies struck 13 sixes in the series opener, but it was a sign of the tricky nature of the surface that their first here did not come until the 13th over when Powell muscled a leg-spinner from Livingstone over midwicket.
It was one of only two clearances of the rope as England profited from bowling the ball into the tacky surface, most spectacularly so when West Indies danger man Nicholas Pooran danced past a Livingstone off-spinner to depart for an uncharacteristically slow 14-ball 24.
England now travel to St Lucia a place above West Indies in the rankings after overtaking them with this weekend double in Bridgetown.
