Moeen Ali admitted the batting depth of the West Indies is “scary” after England withstood a late blitz from lower-order pair Romario Shepherd and Akeal Hosein to win the second Twenty20 by only one run.
England seemed to be cruising to a series-levelling victory when their opponents crumbled from 47 for 2 to 65 for seven in pursuit of 172, with Moeen taking format-best figures of three for twenty-four at Barbados’ Kensington Oval.
However some bruising blows from Shepherd stored a flickering hope alive and although that was extinguished halfway by the ultimate over, Hosein closed the present with three successive sixes off Saqib Mahmood
Shepherd and Hosein, who got here in at seven and 10 respectively, every clubbed 44 not out, the latter doing so from solely 16 deliveries, because the Windies made the ultimate end result a lot nearer than it arguably ought to have been.
“Clearly the sport was accomplished with three balls to go however with Shepherd nonetheless in and the best way it went down, it by no means fairly felt like we had been over the road until the final ball,” Moeen mentioned.
“Although they had been six or seven down for not many runs, they had been by no means fairly out of the sport, they’re such a harmful workforce. They’ve received a lot expertise, a lot energy.
“The actual fact they bat all the best way right down to quantity 10 makes them extraordinarily harmful. For them to lose by one run, it’s truly fairly scary, their batting line-up could be very scary.
“We’re glad to get the win however we might do lots of issues higher. It’s a lesson for the blokes. We all know we haven’t even performed that nicely there and we nonetheless gained the sport.”
Although they had been six or seven down for not many runs, they had been by no means fairly out of the sport, they’re such a harmful workforce
Moeen Ali
Jason Roy had earlier top-scored for England, who misplaced the collection opener 24 hours earlier by 9 wickets once they had been bowled out for 103, with 45 from 31 balls because the vacationers posted 171 for eight after batting first once more.
Reece Topley marked his first T20 worldwide in six years with an early wicket and a run out after which – after spin twins Moeen and Adil Rashid had put the squeeze on within the center overs – the left-arm seamer held his nerve within the penultimate over, yielding simply eight runs to depart the Windies needing 30 from the final six balls.
Mahmood’s first supply was referred to as a large whereas Hosein was left unimpressed when the second was not and took any frustration out on England’s quick bowler with two fours and three sixes in a ultimate over that yielded 28 runs.
“You’ve received to undergo this to get higher and I’m certain he’ll be taking this as a lesson,” Moeen mentioned of Mahmood. “Hopefully he can be taught from it however he’s received a lot skill.
“It’s good for a younger batter to fail a bit bit and a younger bowler to get hit as a result of you’ll be able to solely be taught from that. I’m certain he’s going to do this. Each single one in all us on this workforce has gone by the identical factor.”
Whereas this five-match collection is now all sq. with one win apiece, a gripping conclusion means the Windies can take greater than shred of consolation regardless of their defeat.
Requested the place the stability of energy lay forward of the following recreation on Wednesday, Moeen replied: “If we had been 2-0 down, they would definitely be taking all the momentum. However I believe each groups might be fairly blissful.
“We all know we will play higher and so they know that they actually put us below strain right here, notably on the finish. However for a lot of the recreation we dominated.
“They will take lots of positives and confidence from this however we did win the sport so they are going to be very cautious that we’re going to attempt to carry out higher. I believe it’s going to be a really tight collection.”
Kaynak: briturkish.com
