Key events
12th over: West Indies 72-4 (King 36, Powell 9) Tymal Mills into the attack. A nice start from the slippery southpaw as a slower ball outfoxes Powell. Mills follows up with a decent yorker. Four dots in a row builds the pressure… Powell punches back and drives a full ball through the covers for a most welcome boundary. Just those four runs off the over, mind.
11th over: West Indies 68-4 (King 36, Powell 5) West Indies continue to rebuild, albeit slowly. Five runs off Rashid’s over, he has 2-8 from his three overs. Sublime bowling.
Yeh, but it is drizzling and six degrees here in South London.
10th over: West Indies 63-4 (King 34, Powell 3) Rehan continues, a full ball is driven down the ground by King to give West Indies their first boundary in 22 balls. Close! Rehan nearly cleans King up with the next ball, a googly that confuddles the batter and sees him almost chop onto his stumps. Two singles complete the over. Time for a quick drink.
9th over: West Indies 55-4 (King 28, Powell 1) West Indies have lost four wickets for just eleven runs and will need to rely on their muscular lower order to dig them out of strife. Captain Rovman Powell joins King in the middle, the runs have dried up almost completely, a solitary single and the wicket off the over.
WICKET! Hetmyer c Ali b Rashid 2 (West Indies 54-4)
Rashid snares another and West Indies are in the mire! Faster and fuller from Rashid out of the front of the hand, Hetmyer pokes at it and gets a fast edge to slip where Moeen Ali takes a fine tumbling catch.
WICKET! Hope b Rehan Ahmed 1 (West Indies 51-3)
Bowled him! Ahmed cleans up Shai Hope and makes him look a bit silly in the process, a leg-spinner turns just enough and skids on off the pitch to knock back Hope’s off stump with a satisfying thunk. Ahmed allows himself a little air punch and an even more vigorous chew of his juicy Wrigleys.
Shimron Hetmyer joins King in the middle, England making all the running here in the middle overs, just four singles and the wicket off Rehan’s first.
8th over: West Indies 54-3 (King 28, Hetmyer 2)
7th over: West Indies 50-2 (King 26, Hope 1) Shai Hope replaces the departing Pooran. Rashid has his dander up and 101 T20I wickets to his name. He gives it plenty of flight and every opportunity to spin big, Hope gets off the mark with am poke to off. Rehan Ahmed is coming on for a bowl at the other end, how great it is for the youngster to be able to bowl in tandem with Rashid.
WICKET! Pooran c Woakes b Rashid 5 (West Indies 48-2)
Adil Rashid strikes in his first over! Pooran holes out in the deep, the ball plopping safely into the hands of Chirs Woakes at long on.
6th over: West Indies 48-1 (King 25, Pooran 5) Nicholas Pooran is the new batter and he glides elegantly in the gap wide of point to pick up four off his first ball. A single into the covers will see him keep strike for the next over. That’s the end of the Powerplay.
WICKET! Mayers c Curran b Woakes 17 (West Indies 43-1)
Chris Woakes into his third over, Mayers lines him up and dispatches a full ball high and long over midwicket for SIX! Pressure on Woakes from the very start of the over. He responds well with two dots, cutters that Mayers can’t get through the infield. Gone! Mayers tries to launch Woakes for another maximum but doesn’t get hold of it, well held by Sam Curran as it swirled in the wind. England have their first!
5th over: West Indies 37-0 (King 25, Mayers 11) Sam Curran replaces Moeen. A dot first ball is followed by a sweetly timed drive for four by King. Curran takes the pace off and goes back of a length, Brandon King can’t get him away and starts to huff in frustration… that’ll help! King charges down and flat bats Curran down the ground for an emphatic four!
4th over: West Indies 29-0 (King 17, Mayers 11) Mayers gets in on the act against Chris Woakes. The seamer drops short and is flayed away on the back foot for four through the off side. Bosh! Another short ball is clubbed away by Mayers, this time through the on side. There’s a delay in Grenada as the grounds team come out to hammer some footmarks down in the popping crease. King flicks to leg to take a single after the restart. Ten runs off the over.
3rd over: West Indies 19-0 (King 16, Mayers 2) West Indies loosen their shoulders! After two dots to start, Ali tosses one a bit fuller and is bunted for SIX down the ground by King! Another couple of dot balls follow before King gets under another and clears the ropes for the second time in the over. Feast or famine at the moment from the home side.
2nd over: West Indies 7-0 (King 4, Mayers 2) Chris Woakes starts from the other end and begins with a wide down the leg side. Close! Woakes nearly sneaks one past King who is on the walk. Another tight over for England, just three singles off it. Moeen is given another…
1st over: West Indies 3-0 (King 2, Mayers 1) Moeen starts with the ball and gets in and out of the over cheaply with just three singles off it. Buttler has a slip in place and Moeen is accurate, getting a bit of grip on a length. West Indies are watchful.
Jacqueline Williams is standing as umpire in this match, she becomes the first female umpire from the West Indies to stand in a men’s T20I between two Full Members. Gregory Brathwaite is the other pink shirted official in the middle today.
The players are ready, Grenada looks a picture – let’s play!
Teams:
West Indies: 1 Brandon King, 2 Kyle Mayers, 3 Shai Hope, 4 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 5 Rovman Powell (c), 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Andre Russell, 8 Jason Holder, 9 Akeal Hosein, 10 Gudakesh Motie, 11 Alzarri Joseph
England: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (c & wk), 3 Will Jacks, 4 Harry Brook, 5 Moeen Ali, 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Rehan Ahmed, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Tymal Mills
Moeen Ali comes in for Ben Duckett for England, West Indies have opted for spinner Gudakesh Motie over a knee niggle suffering Romario Shepherd.
England win the toss and choose to bowl first
Jos Buttler’s day gets off to a bright start in sunny Grenada, he calls correctly and says his side want to chase on what looks to be a decent wicket.
Preamble
James Wallace
Hello and welcome to the 2nd T20I between England and West Indies from Grenada. The two sides duked it out til late on Tuesday evening and it was the men in maroon who landed the knockout punch to go 1-0 up in the five match series. Andre Russell was the star performer – taking 3-29 and smashing 29* off just 14 deliveries when the game was on the line in his first appearance for his country in two years.
England were left to lick their wounds after another white ball defeat, not the ideal way for spin hero Adil Rashid to celebrate his 100th T20I but he was phlegmatic on the nature of defeat and victory after the match:
We’ve still got belief in ourselves. All we’ve got to do is go out there and have that self-belief, stick to our process and just play the game. But I’m not concerned. You win some, you lose some.”
Jos Buttler could very much do with a win to get back into the series, a victory would spritz some sweet smelling cologne onto the stench of defeat lingering over him and his white ball sides in 2023.
I’ll be back very soon with news of the teams and toss, play gets underway at 13.30pm local time – 17.30 GMT.
