Armed with a 1-0 lead, England will look to finish off the season on a high when they play West Indies in the second and the final T20I of the series. The game will be played at the Oval.
The second England v West Indies T20I will begin on Sunday at 1815 hours local time or 1715 hours GMT.
It was a very fair performance by the Graeme Swann-led English team in the first game. First, they restricted the West Indian team to 125 in their 20 overs before knocking the runs off without any casualties.
Interestingly, it was the bowling of Ravi Bopara, who ended with figures of 4/10 from his nearly four overs and the batting of new-comer Alex Hales that won the side the game with such ease. Samit Patel’s 2/23 and Craig Kieswetter’s unbeaten 58 also contributed to the victory.
England playing 11 for first T20I against West Indies:
Swann (c), Jonathan Bairstow, Alex Hales, Jos Buttler, Steven Finn, Jade Dernbach, Ravi Bopara, Craig Kieswetter (wk), Samit Patel, Ben Stokes, Tim Bresnan.
West Indies started off well in the game through debutant Johnson Charles and Dwayne Smith, who was allowed another opportunity. At 51/0 in the sixth over, the side looked good to get a challenging target for their opponents but the inexperience of the West Indian batting led to a mighty collapse. The last eight wickets fell away for only 28 runs.
West Indies team for the first T20I against England:
Sammy, Christopher Barnwell, Devendra Bishoo, Nkruma Bonner, Johnson Charles, Derwin Christian, Fidel Edwards, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Smith.
West Indies (7/2 at
BetFred) will look to build from the positives in the first game when the two sides meet in the second match of the series. Smith’s comeback was good, Charles made a good start to his career while Danza Hyatt did his bit with the bat.
It will be the middle-order and the bowling under pressure that would be something to look out for the West Indies.
England (1/4 at
Ladbrokes) will start as favourites to make it 2-0, a result that Graeme Swann would like to end the season with.
