MATCH REPORT
Follow UsDefending 20 runs off the final over, West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder bowled one of the most scintillating overs of the series, bagging a double-hattrick, giving Windies a 3-2 series win over England. The all-rounder joined the unique club of bowlers picking up a double hattrick in the shortest format of the game, alongside Curtis Campher and Lasith Malinga amongst others.
West Indies' great start
After Windies skipper Kieron Pollard won the toss and elected to bat first, the pressure was on the openers – Kyle Mayers and Brandon King – to get the hosts off to a flyer. And that’s exactly what the two did, firing the burners in the powerplay. While King started the party, it was the southpaw Mayers who took control.
At the end of Saqib Mahmood’s opening over, the hosts bounced off the pace to get themselves to 22/0, setting the pace to the encounter. When Chris Jordan was introduced, they continued the onslaught with 14 more runs, taking their total to 47/0 before finishing the powerplay on 58/0.
The onus of stopping the run-party was on the shoulders of the English spinners, Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone after skipper Ali was thwarted in Barbados. Rashid, who has a brilliant record against the Men in Maroon continued his form, scalping the big fish Mayers (31).
Bizarrely, Pollard promoted Romario Shepherd at No.3, a move that failed after showing light (6). Livingstone struck just after the Drinks break to reduce the hosts to 89/3. Nicholas Pooran joined skipper Pollard to salvage the pride for the Windies in an attempt to post a challenging total in the series finale.
Rashid, however, had other plans packing Pooran back, as the hosts reeled their way to 105/4, after being well placed at 59/0 after the powerplay. However, the best was yet to come for the Men in Maroon, when Rovman Powell joined the party.
Together with skipper Pollard, the powerful right-hander plummeted the ball to the moon and back. Over the last four overs, Windies went from 113/4 to 179/4, on the back of some brute force from the two. In the last four overs, the duo scored 66 runs, including 32 runs off Reece Topley’s final two overs.
For the visitors, it was the two spinners, Rashid and Livingstone with top figures, both finishing the innings with 2/17.
England's fight left too late
England got off the best start possible when Jason Roy thumped Akeal Hosein twice to the boundary rope. But things took a sudden turn when Roy (8) was undone by some brilliant piece of wicketkeeping from Nicholas Pooran.
However, a sturdy partnership between Tom Banton and James Vince showed promise for the visitors before Odean Smith’s sharp bouncer accounted for the former, walking back scoring a 12-ball 16. England found themselves in all sorts of trouble at 40/2 but their skipper Ali was yet to come.
On the back of his match-winning contribution in the fourth encounter, Ali was earmarked for great things here on Monday. However, his innings throughout was a struggle, as Vince was left with a mountain to climb from the other end. Despite the pressure, the right-hander took his chances wisely, taking on the Windies bowlers as England reached 86/2 after the first half of their run-chase.
The second half of the run-chase took a wrong turn when Ali (14) walked back, just after the Drinks break, as Jason Holder struck on his return to the bowling crease. Livingstone showed impact but perished immediately via some brilliant bowling from Hosein, who was the stand-out bowler for the hosts on the night.
After removing the dangerous Livingstone, the left-arm spinner returned to the bowling crease to send Vince (55) packing after the English batter’s half-century. At 112/5, the Three Lions had no choice but to gamble with their shot selection in pursuit of 180.
Hosein struck again, this time removing Phil Salt to put the visitors in a troublesome position, at 119/6 with nowhere to run. But the presence of Sam Billings, who combined intelligence with brute force started pulling things back for the visitors with some nifty batting.
Odean’s 18th over ultimately put the encounter in fine balance, with the English wicketkeeper-batsman alongside Jordan scoring 20 runs, bringing the equation down to 28 runs off just 12 balls. Against Cottrell however, the two batters could only get eight runs, needing 20 from the last over.
When the encounter was beginning to heat up, Holder’s record-breaking over sealed the encounter in the hosts’ favour. The all-rounder struck four times in four consecutive deliveries, going past Billings’ (41) efforts to seal a 3-2 win for the Windies.
Brief Scores: West Indies 179/4 in 20 overs (Kieron Pollard 41, Rovman Powell 35; Adil Rashid 2/17) beat England 162/10 (James Vince 55, Sam Billings 41; Jason Holder 5/27) by 17 runs
Player of the Match and Player of the Series: Jason Holder (5/27)
