Salt’s amazing knock guides England to victory over West Indies

St Lucia: West Indies kicked off their Super 8 campaign against England at the Darren Sammy Ground in St Lucia. West Indies had comfortably qualified from their group with four wins in four matches while England found it quite difficult to qualify and had to rely on Australia to beat Scotland in order to finish second in their group. The Windies were the favorites in this match as not only were they in a better form but were also playing on home soil.

England won the toss and decided to bowl first. West Indian openers, Brandon King and Johnson Charles gave their side an explosive start. Both of them were playing quite well until King suffered a side strain and was forced to retire hurt. Next came Nicholas Pooran who formed a good partnership alongside Charles. England finally were able to get their first wicket of the match in the eleventh over thanks to Moeen Ali who dismissed Charles for 38.

Captain Rovman Powell came in at 4 and smashed the England around the park registering 5 sixes. Pooran played a steady knock as well and gave good support to Powell. However, both of them ended up losing their wickets in consecutive overs. West Indies looked to be in a spot of bother when they lost Andre Russell for a run in the sixteenth over, however Sherfane Rutherford’s impressive cameo of 28 carried the Windies to 180/4 in 20 overs.

In reply, openers Phil Salt and Jos Buttler gave England a fantastic start. They crossed 50 runs within the powerplay itself, however Buttler lost his wicket in the seventh over. Moeen Ali also wasn’t able to impact the game much and lost his wicket for only 13 runs as England were 84/2 in 10 overs. Salt formed a great partnership with Bairstow and even went on to smash 30 runs in the 16th over against Rutherford. Salt’s unbeaten 87 and Bairstow’s unbeaten 48 carried England to complete the target of 181 in only 17.3 overs.

Salt was awarded with the man-of-the-match award for his brilliant knock as the Three Lions began their Super 8 campaign on a high with a dominant win against hosts West Indies. If they keep on playing like this then they might even go on to successfully retain their T20 World Cup title.

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