England beat the West Indies by one run in the second T20 international to level the five-match series at 1–1; Jason Roy (45) and Moeen Ali (31) help tourists post 171-8; Moeen (3-24) and Adil Rashid (2-24) sweep the West Indies top and middle before the late attack brings the hosts to 170-8
Moeen Ali took three wickets as England leveled the five-match T20 series in Barbados
Moeen Ali impressed with bat and ball as England leveled the T20 series despite being sweating from a late West Indies lower order attack.
The tourists were sailing to victory as the game entered its final stages, but some notable late shots, including three sixes from the last three balls for Akeal Hosein, in a 72-run stoppage with Romario Shepherd, meant that Eoin’s team Morgan came home by just one run.
Jason Roy was the top scorer on 45 from 31 balls as England, having scored 103 in Saturday’s series opener, put in a far greater effort to post 171-8 at Barbados.
That seemed to be more than enough as the West Indies fell to 65-7 with Moeen (3-24) and Adil Rashid (2-24) excelling at intermission.
However, from 98-8, Shepherd (44th of 28) and Hosein (44th of 16) went from giving the scoreboard a more respectable look to making England worry when Saqib Mahmood (0-45) went the distance in the final.
Given how the first game had gone, it was no surprise when Kieron Pollard asked England to bat first again when he won the toss, and that meltdown was clearly on Roy and Tom Banton’s minds as they started the innings more cautiously. . .
Banton soon picked up his stride though, enjoying Pollard’s decision to activate the spinners early and helping himself to the limits with a mixture of sweeps and reverse sweeps before returning a direct hit to Fabian Allen, who took a excellent catch back on the last one. power game over.
The left arm spinner struck again before the over ended, dropping James Vince (4) with a delivery that he righted and cut bail.
Roy and Moeen stayed together until the drinks break after 10 overs, though the latter required some good luck to get there, as he was knocked out by Nicholas Pooran from Pollard on the 13th after having benefited from a Darren Bravo misjudgment of Allen, the fielder didn’t even get a hand on the ball.
Roy sprang into action in the 11th over, taking 24 from Allen’s over, including straight sixes, the second of which flew off the ground and the pair of fiftys appeared in the next over with a Moeen limit (31 for 24).
Both men went down in the next two overs as the West Indies were able to slow things down, Sam Billings’ dismissal in the 15th making him three wickets in as many overs.
England found a late boost thanks to a cameo appearance from Chris Jordan, the bowling all-rounder hitting two fours and a six on a blustery 15-ball 27 to lift the visitors to a winning total.
The West Indies quickly found themselves in trouble in the chase when Reece Topley, playing his first T20I since 2016, caught Brandon King (0) lbw with his third ball and then brilliantly outpointed Shai Hope (2) on his next, diving for throw the ball on the stumps.
Pooran (24) and Bravo (23) helped the home team recover from a 6-2 deficit before the former holed in Moeen’s first over, causing a collapse from 47-2 to 65-7 with Moeen and Rashid bowling brilliantly in tandem.
Pollard (1) and Bravo fell lbw to Rashid after two good reviews from England, while Moeen also represented Jason Holder (1) and Odean Smith (7) before Jordan unseated Allen (12).
That seemed to be it with the West Indies needing 74 of 29 balls to win. It turned out to be beyond them, but also as Shepherd and Hosein shared the top spot at 9th wicket in a T20I by a full member nation.
Jordan went for 24 in an 18 that also saw Morgan drop Hosein before Topley’s neat 19 (1-18) left a needed 30 of the last. A wide open pitch from Mahmood was followed by another very similar pitch that the umpire released before Hosein scored four in a row.
Extras were already needed and Mahmood hit them one wide, so there was no margin for error, but even with Hosein hammering the last three balls over the ropes, England held on to make it 1-1 with three games remaining. the Serie. .
England Captain Eoin Morgan: “Delighted and even with the last quarter of the game, with a relatively inexperienced international line-up, these are games you want to play in. Looking back at the World Cup, we didn’t play in a lot of tight games to work on our death stroke and bowling. of death
“Today is a good example of that and hopefully the more experience the better we’ll be at execution. But most of the day, I thought we were brilliant. I thought we adapt to conditions after being stuck, it was ‘No. It’s so easy, but we managed to build partnerships.”
West Indies Captain Kieron Pollard: “The way the guys fought in the back, we knew what they could do. These guys can hit the ball from a long way. The faith and confidence that Akeal has is tremendous, he’s been working on his hitting. But give me a word for Shepherd as well, the way he hit, raised his hand and showed responsibility.”
England all-rounder Moeen Ali: “I thought Rash and I played pretty well in that intermission period. We’ve played quite a bit together now and I thought he read the surface very well. The way he was spinning the ball, it makes it easier for me actually because then the guys they come after being and when they do that’s when you can get land.”
England and the West Indies meet again in the third international T20 starting at 8:00 p.m. on January 26 with the games on January 29 and 30 completing the five-game series.
