Wednesday 30 / October / 2024
Gros Islet : After England humbled hard-hitting co-hosts, West Indies, by 8 wickets, Windies captain Rovman Powell felt his team was 15 to 20 runs short and strayed away from their plans against explosive batter Philip Salt.
England won their Super Eight match against the West Indies by 8-wicket at the T20 World Cup 2024 in Gros Islet. After keeping the West Indies to 180 runs with superb death bowling, England's openers got the team off to a strong start with a 67-run opening stand. Following the dismissals of captain Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow and Salt stitched a partnership for 97 runs off 44 balls to win the match.
Salt total obliterated Romario Shepherd for 4, 6, 4, 6, 6 and 4 gathering 30 runs in the 16th over. Salt was named Player of the Match after his brilliant 87* off 47 balls.
"But credit has to be given to Phil, he seems to like playing against West Indies. Every time he plays against West Indies, he always hurts us. We strayed away a little bit from our plans to Phil. It's just for us to look back at those plans and re-evaluate," Powell said in a post-match presentation.
Powell stated that they are normally good with the bat in the last 5 overs and lauded England for the way they bowled. After a poor finish with the bat, they gave Salt and Moeen Ali lives, with wicketkeeper Nicholas Pooran unable to hang on to thin deflections on both occasions.
"When you look from the batting perspective, we were 15-20 runs short. We could have given a better display with the ball as a bowling group. We couldn't capitalise in the last five overs but credit to the English bowlers, they executed their plans very well," he added.
Talking about opener Brandon King's injury, the batter sustained during a clash against Engalnd, Powell hopes the 29-year-old hitter can pull through as he is an important player for them.
King smashed 23 off 12 balls to get the West Indies off to a flying start, including a 101-metre six off Reece Topley that soared past the midwicket boundary with the wind and needed a replacement ball. But he was injured when facing his 13th ball, after charging down the pitch to hit Sam Curran through cover. King went one more step before collapsing and being forced to retire after receiving care from a West Indies medical staff member.
"Just a bit worried, but hopefully he can pull through for the next game," said the captain.
Powell said that his team's destiny is still in their hands and will look to continue playing good cricket.
"Our destiny is in our own hands and we need to win well, we need to continue playing good cricket," he said.
The Windies will now travel to Barbados to take on the USA in their second Super Eight match at Kensington Oval on Friday.
