March 8, 2019 – the Windies would surely like to forget this date as soon as possible. The 2-time WT20 champions have been outstanding in this format but what they went through on Friday was an absolute nightmare. The Windies were dismissed for the second-lowest ever T20 international total of just 45 as England swept to a 137-win.
Chasing 183 to win, the world champion West Indies just avoided the lowest ever total of 39 made by the non-Test Netherlands against Sri Lanka in 2014. On the other hand, this was England’s largest margin of victory, in terms of runs, in T20s and gives them the series 2-0 with the final match of the tour coming up on Sunday at the same venue.
Chris Jordan wrecked the West Indies top-order batting as England completed a crushing, series-clinching victory at Warner Park. He accelerated the slide in disposing of Darren Bravo and captain Jason Holder off successive deliveries before adding the scalps of Nicholas Pooran and Fabien Allen.
He was however deprived of the chance of a five-wicket haul as his skipper, Eoin Morgan, allowed Adil Rashid and Liam Plunkett to finish off the match, the leg-spinner and fast-medium bowler taking two wickets each.
After Sam Billings engineered an excellent recovery with 87 to lift the tourists to 182 for six, Jordan was almost unplayable in taking four wickets for six runs off three overs with the home side crashing in just 11.5 overs.
David Willey, who partnered the rampant Billings in adding 68 runs for the sixth wicket after England were put in, started the rout of the Caribbean team with the critical wicket of Chris Gayle before adding opening partner Shai Hope two balls later.
Earlier Billings made the most of being dropped on 14 by debutant pacer Obed McCoy on the long-on boundary in finishing with a T20I career-best of 87 off 47 balls with three sixes and ten fours to take the man of the match award.
He also affected the run out of Root just as the partnership with Billings was threatening to accelerate. Billings fell to the last ball of the innings, caught behind off McCoy, but not before he had taken 22 runs off the first five deliveries of the over.