‌WI vs ENG | Twitter reacts to Salt-Bairstow carnage rip apart Windies’ winning streak on home soil

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West Indies suffered their first defeat in the 2024 T20 World Cup as England chased a target of 181 runs convincingly with eight wickets and 15 balls to spare. Phil Salt’s 86* and Jonny Bairstow’s 46* peppered West Indies bowlers with Romario Shepherd leaking 30 in an over in St Lucia.

WI: 180/4 [Charles: 38, Powell: 36; Rashid: 1/21] lost to ENG: 181/2  [Salt: 86*, Bairstow:48*; Chase: 1/19]

Winning the toss in a Super Over clash, Jos Buttler’s decision to field first backfired with the West Indies top-order piling up 41 runs in four overs after a couple of watchful overs to wrap up a 54-run powerplay. Nicholas Pooran made way for a retired hurt Brandon King with a groin injury and continued his blistering form with the bat. The right and left-handed duo added 28 runs as their ten-over score read 82/0. Seven balls later, England earned their first breakthrough after Moeen Ali outdid Charles in the 12th over followed by Adil Rashid’s three-run over exerted pressure on the hosts. However, Rovman Powell decided to take on Liam Livingstone for three sixes before the latter had the last laugh with the score reading 137/2 in 15 overs. Subsequently, six runs came off the next couple of overs with Archer and Rashid removing dangerous Pooran and Andre Russell respectively. It came down to Sherfane Rutherford’s quickfire that helped West Indies secure 37 runs in the last three overs to push the score to 180/4.

In reply, England got off to a flying start as Jos Buttler and Phil Salt mixed caution with aggression. The wicketkeeper duo aggregated 58 runs in six overs with the even overs surging over ten runs inside the powerplay. Subsequently, Roston Chase capitalised on Gudakesh Motie’s tight over by trapping Buttler plumb in front. With the score reading 83/1 in ten overs, Andre Russell returned for his second over to outfox Moeen Ali in the eleventh over before Jonny Bairstow took control of the game alongside Phil Salt. The former didn’t take time to extract 30 runs in two overs to jab England’s tally to 141/2 in 15 overs. With 40 required off the last five overs, captain Rovman Powell’s decision to bring Romario Shepherd back was counterpunched by Phil Salt who smacked 30 runs off the 16th over to curtail the equation to nine needed off 24. The duo eventually, hunted down the remainder in nine balls to open their winning account in Group 2 of Super Eight.

 Brutal

Superb

Destroyed

Back to back?

Big win

Tough times ahead

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Dominant performance

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