England worth their Salt: Opener smashes unbeaten 87 as champions reignite title defence with win over West Indies

Gros Islet, June 20

Defending champions England brushed aside their struggles in the opening phase of the T20 World Cup with an eight-wicket victory over the previously unbeaten West Indies in their Super Eight opener.

England’s bowlers restricted West Indies to 180/4 on the same pitch where the co-hosts had scored 218 against Afghanistan on Monday before opener Phil Salt led the way with 87 from 47 balls as the batters got the job done inside 18 overs.

Having squeaked into the second stage on net run-rate, England will take a huge boost of confidence from beating one of the in-form teams at the tournament to top Group 2 with South Africa, whom they meet next at the same ground.

“It’s been a very stop-start (tournament) for us. We had a hiccup against Australia and then the rain out against Scotland. It didn’t really feel like we played much cricket up to this point,” Salt said. “I feel in tournament cricket, you need a bit of confidence and momentum at the right time and you need to keep building on it. So, to get a win against the hosts gives us the first push in that direction,” he added.

The meeting of the only two teams to have won the T20 World Cup twice was expected to be a run-fest and much of the credit for the win will go to the England bowlers for preventing the big-hitting locals from cutting loose.

“I thought we did really well to restrict such a powerful batting lineup,” said England captain Jos Buttler. “It’s still a decent score and you have to play well to chase them down. But I thought we were very smart with the bat.”

Having won the toss and elected to field, they served up 51 dot balls and took regular wickets in the second half of the innings to prevent any of the West Indies batters from reaching a half-century.

“I think we left 15-20 runs out there as a batting group (and) we could have given a better display with the ball,” West Indies skipper Rovman Powell said. “Credit to the England bowling unit, they have killer plans and the execution was good.” — Reuters

Brief scores: West Indies: 180/4 in 20 overs (Powell 36, Pooran 36; Rashid 1/21); England: 181/2 in 17.3 overs (Salt 87*, Bairstow 48*)

Australia skipper Marsh ready to bowl

North sound: Australia captain Mitchell Marsh says he is ready to bowl in the Super Eight phase after a gradual recovery from a hamstring strain. The all-rounder has been restricted to batting and his bowling has not been needed as Australia went undefeated through the opening group stage. However, he offers the side a medium pace option if required, starting with their game against Bangladesh. Reuters