Righto, Taha’s report has landed which is my cue to get out of here. Thanks for your company, goodnight!
The captains shave their say:
West Indies captain Shai Hope:
For us it comes down to crucial moments in the game, with bat or ball. We haven’t put a complete game together, we have to find ways and just keep chipping away. We have to find our way, of how we’re going to score and keep dot balls down as much as possible. If we can marry the two together, keep scoring consistently and marry power and finesse. We’ve got to improve everywhere.”
England captain Harry Brook:
Very pleased, the lads have done well and played exceptional cricket. To top off the series as we have tonight has been pleasing.
It’s been a challenge (captaincy) but really good. I like the depth in the batting, it gives the lads at the top permission to go out and get us off to a flyer.”
Ben Duckett (84 off 46) is Player of the Match
It was great pitch to bat on. The ball didn’t do a great deal up top and we looked to put pressure on right from the start. [On batting with Jamie Smith partnership] It’s good, in Tests we haven’t batted loads together, he hits the ball in a completely different area to me, so far so good. I keep it pretty simple, keep to my strengths.”
Jos Buttler (165 runs) is named Player of the Series:
Really enjoyed it, there’s a lot of confidence in the group, we played some good cricket and have the results to match. I’m enjoying my game and finding ways to improve… it’s a new role for me and there’s plenty of motivation to score runs.”
That was a pretty nuts game, 459 runs (and eleven wickets).
That’s the most runs ever in a T20I in England. I’m off to quickly ice my knuckles before bringing you some post match reaction.
Spare a thought for Taha Hashim, our man in Southampton has to de-tangle that run fest and file a match report any moment now.
Updated
England win by 37 runs and take the series 3-0
Brydon Carse oversteps twice in the final over, including after yorking Powell and lighting up the stumps. It’s a strange end to the match as Powell flays the final over for multiple boundaries and there are 23 runs scored off the final over.
Still, England win comfortably and that’s six from six for Harry Brook’s whiteball side.
20th over: West Indies 211-8 (Powell 79, Hosein 1)
Updated
19th over: West Indies 188-8 (Powell 58, Hosein 1) Adil Rashid with the penultimate over, game in the bag for England. Powell gets two to take him to fifty off 34 balls. SIX! Powell hits the next ball over Banton on the deep midwicket fence. Hosein leaves, yes leaves the final ball of Rashid’s spell. Don’t give ‘em an inch Akeal! Rashid finishes with 2-30 off his four overs.
18th over: West Indies 176-8 (Powell 48, Hosein 0) Excellent from Luke Wood, on a night of batting carnage in Southampton he finishes with 3-31 from his four overs.
WICKET! Gudakesh Motie c Jacks b Wood 1 (West Indies 174-8)
Wood has two in the over! Motie hits a short ball in the air and Jacks takes a tumbling catch at mid on. England’s catching and fielding has been impressive this evening.
Updated
WICKET! Jason Holder c Carse b Wood 25 (West Indies 172-7)
Luke Wood returns for his final over… he snares Jason Holder with a slower ball and Carse takes a comfortable catch in the deep.
Updated
17th over: West Indies 172-6 (Powell 46, Holder 25) Dawson is back for his final over, presumably after raiding the arnica stores in the medical bag. Holder uses his long levers to swipe down the ground for SIX. A single brings Powell on strike and he smashes the next ball right into Holder’s box at the non striker’s end! Klunk. All smiles after a few deep breaths.
16th over: West Indies 164-6 (Powell 45, Holder 18) Powell flays Brydon Carse through the off side for consecutive fours to start the next over. Carse drags his length back and gets a dot ball. Powell aims a massive moose at the next and connects with nowt. Gets the next one, shorter from Carse and pulled into the stands for SIX! Fifteen off the over.
15th over: West Indies 149-6 (Powell 30, Holder 18) West Indies need twenty off every over from here… Holder prangs Bethell down the ground for SIX and is then dropped next ball as Jacks can’t cling on in the deep diving forward across the turf. Powell picks up four with a dink to fine leg and Holder finishes the over with another brutal SIX down the ground. Twenty taken off the over…
Updated
14th over: West Indies 129-6 (Powell 25, Holder 3) Dawson wears two vicious blows on the body as Holder and Powell smack the ball back at him! His thumb is bleeding and his knee must be screaming, he goes off at the end of the over for running repairs.
Updated
13th over: West Indies 121-6 (Powell 24, Holder 1) Jason Holder the new man, he drives his first for a single. Rashid has 2-19 off his three overs. Insert superlatives here.
Updated
WICKET! Romario Shepherd c Brook b Rashid 0 (West Indies 120-6)
Top catch by Harry Brook at short cover as Shepherd defensively plinks a length ball off Rashid, he should have had a swipe! Brook dives forward at full stretch and gets his fingers underneath the ball.
Updated
12th over: West Indies 119-5 (Powell 23, Shepherd 0) Romario Shepherd is the new man, he won’t hang around…
WICKET! Shai Hope c Buttler b Carse 45 (West Indies 119-5)
Hope scoops Carse for SIX and then repeats the shot next ball for a one bounce four! Hope leans back and larrups a slower ball through the off side for four. Carse has the last laugh as a short ball is tamely top edged through to Jos Buttler! That could well be that (if it wasn’t already).
Updated
11th over: West Indies 105-4 (Hope 31, Powell 23) Liam Dawson back into the attack, Brydon Carse saves a couple of runs with some excellent work in the deep. Impressive from Dawson, fluctuating his speeds and keeping the batters guessing. Hope creams a four through cover but one boundary an over is nowhere near enough, the run rate is up over fifteen per over.
10th over: West Indies 97-4 (Hope 24, Powell 22) Rovman Powell takes Rashid to task! A four and SIX over long on and then a rapier cut for four to take West Indies to drinks needing 152 from 60 balls.
9th over: West Indies 82-4 (Hope 24, Powell 7) Bethell rattles through a quick over, four singles but Powell nails a cut shot for four to just about keep West Indies alive.
8th over: West Indies 74-4 (Hope 22, Powell 1) Rovman Powell the new man, excellent from Rashid – just four runs and the wicket off his first over. Game slipping out of sight for West Indies.
WICKET! Sherfane Rutherford c Wood b Rashid 1 (West Indies 70-4)
Adil Rashid picks up Rutherford with his first ball! Another flay into the deep that doesn’t have the legs to clear the man on the boundary!
Updated
7th over: West Indies 70-3 (Hope 21, Rutherford 1) Brilliant over from Bethell, just four runs and the wicket off it.
WICKET! Shimron Hetmyer c Duckett b Bethell 26 (West Indies 69-3)
Bethell into the attack and gets the big kahuna! Hetmyer tries to launch down the ground but can’t clear Duckett in the deep.
Updated
6th over: West Indies 66-2 (Hope 18, Hetmyer 26) Luke Wood into his third over, Hetmyer gets his lid on and Wood slams down a bouncer that flies off the top edge for four over Buttler’s head behind the sticks. Wood cramps him up and a single is clipped into the leg side. Wood follows Hope down the leg side and spears one into his pads way down the leg side. Hetmyer onto a length ball in a flash and whacks away for SIX! Same again next ball! Hetmyer on the charge for West Indies.
5th over: West Indies 47-2 (Hope 16, Hetmyer 9) Dawson nearly has two in the over as the helmet-less Hetmyer plinks in the air but the ball land safe between Smith and Brook in the covers. Hetmyer gets hold of the final ball though, southpaw sweeping away powerfully for SIX!
WICKET! Evin Lewis c Duckett b Dawson 9 (West Indies 37-2)
Spin from both ends as local boy Liam Dawson comes on for a tweak and a twirl. Lewis slaps a length ball at just 53 mph up in the air and Duckett takes the catch in the deep!
Updated
4th over: West Indies 36-1 (Lewis 9, Hope 16) Will Jacks introduced… Shai Hope skips back into his crease and punches off the back foot for SIX. That could well be the shot of the night, which is saying something. It was that good. Hope then sweeps for SIX more as Jacks is targeted. That sounded incredible off the bat, a real whipcrackin’ noise off the blade. Jacks then beats him outside off next ball. Eventful over, fifteen off it.
3rd over: West Indies 21-1 (Lewis 8, Hope 2) Shai Hope arrives in the middle. His side need something epic from him today. Wood cramps him up, Hope nudges a couple of singles. Run rate rising like an inquisitive cobra.
WICKET! Johnson Charles c Smith b Wood 9 (West Indies 18-1)
Flicked straight to Jamie Smith at square leg. Sharp catch staring into the setting sun, England and Luke Wood have their first.
Updated
2nd over: West Indies 18-0 (Lewis 7, Charles 9) Brydon Carse starts the second over as England start with pace from both ends for the first time in the series. Charles latches onto a short ball and pulls for four before he benefits from a strange call of No Ball even though Carse’s bouncer wasn’t over head height? Curious, if this was the IPL you could send that upstairs to be reviewed. Carse is ticking and the ensuing Free Hit goes for four to rub salt in the wound.
1st over: West Indies 7-0 (Lewis 6, Charles 0) Wood on the hip with his first ball and Evin Lewis swats away easy as you like for SIX! That’s a decent retort to his first-baller from Wood down in Bristol. Wood responds well, four dots with a mixture of full and short balls at a slippery pace. Plenty of swings and misses from the batters. They need to give it some serious humpty.
Righto, here come West Indies for the chase – Johnson Charles and Evin Lewis stride out to the middle. The Left arm of Luke Wood is going to get things underway with the ball for England. Play!
England score 248-3!
Brook baseball flays a short ball from Holder down the ground for SIX. Astonishing batting. Some of the strokes today have pushed the envelope and beaten the boundaries. They score their second highest T20I total but can’t quite make 25o as Jason Holder used all his wiles to get out of the last over for the cost of twelve runs.
West Indies will need all their big guns to even get near to this nosebleed inducing total. The pitch is a belter, don’t go anywhere. (I’m off for a six minute power nap)
20th over: England 248-3 (Brook 35, Bethell 36)
19th over: England 236-3 (Brook 25, Bethell 35) Brook misses out on two bouncers from Joseph but nails the third for SIX with what I can only describe as a ‘scoopy pull’. A dabbed single to third brings Bethell on strike. Kablammo! Bethell spanks over mid on for SIX with an absolute minimum of fuss. One over to go, England eyeing 250 and beyond.
18th over: England 221-3 (Brook 18, Bethell 28) Bethell flays Holder into the off side but the ball lands safe as Sherfane Rutherford pulls up running in for the catch. It looks like he has tweaked a hamstring and departs with the team medic. Bethell then somehow manages to reverse-paddle a well executed yorker for four! How did he even do that?
Updated
17th over: England 213-3 (Brook 17, Bethell 21) Motie into his last over, he’s done well to pick up 1-24 from his three overs so far.
Shot! Bethell clears the square boundary by some distance as he swipes for SIX! Motie goes full and Bethell swats down the ground for SIX more! You guessed it… SIX more to Bethell as he uses the depth in his crease and flashes with incredibly fast hands! A single down the ground sees Bethell keep strike for the next. His captain won’t mind one bit.
Updated
16th over: England 191-3 (Brook 16, Bethell 1) Brook falls off his feet scooping Alzarri Joseph but gets enough of it to pick up four. Gah! Joseph spears down five wides that soar past the gloves of Shai Hope flinging himself desperately down the leg side. Joseph responds with a dot, just England’s 18th of the innings. And another, a bouncer flies past Brook’s snout and into Hope’s gloves at head height.
15th over: England 178-3 (Brook 7, Bethell 0) Jacob Bethell replaces Duckett. Stand by your beds.
Updated
WICKET! Duckett b Hosein 84 (England 178-3)
Duckett slaps a low full toss back through the hands of Akeal Hosein and away for four but the bowler get his man in the end, bowling him round his legs and knocking back leg stump. Brilliant innings from Duckett, he has given England a hefty platform.
Updated
14th over: England 173-2 (Duckett 81, Brook 7) Fourteen runs off Rutherford’s second over, two wides, two singles and two boundaries, one each to Duckett and Brook.
Updated
13th over: England 159-2 (Duckett 74, Brook 2) West Indies get some control back, just five runs off Motie’s latest. And breathe.
Updated
12th over: England 154-2 (Duckett 71, Brook 0) Harry Brook arrives in the middle to join Duckett. England won’t take their foot off the accelerator.
WICKET! Jos Buttler c Hetmyer b Rutherford 22 (England 154-2)
Sherfane Rutherford to bowl some seam up medium pace dobbers. Shai Hope mixing it up best he can. It’s wide stuff from the bowler but the plan works in the end! Buttler tries to clatter into the deep but holes out. Relief for West Indies!
Updated
11th over: England 148-1 (Duckett 68, Buttler 20) Hosein goes for a couple of singles before a shorter ball gives Duckett enough room to slap for four into the deep at midwicket. A single brings Buttler on strike, he dances down and hits clean and true wide of mid on for SIX. This is scintillating stuff from England.
10th over: England 135-1 (Duckett 62, Buttler 13) Alzarri Joseph returns, he’s full and wide or short and at the body. Good recovery in the first half of the over. Can he get out of it without too much damage? Nope. Buttler flicks off his pads for SIX behind square. That ball was timed to within an inch of its life. What even was that? Buttler plays some sort of pirouetting scoop to get four over the wicketkeeper. It’s a no look mid-air scoop shot. Simple.
England take drinks at 135-1 – that’s their highest ten over total in T20Is. Here’s the list we’re all interested in, particularly you, Matthew Doherty.
9th over: England 121-1 (Duckett 60, Buttler 1) ‘Only me!’ Jos Buttler strolls out with purpose with England 120-1 in the ninth over. Gulp. He gets off the mark with a single down the ground and will keep strike.
WICKET! Jamie Smith c Hetmyer b Motie 60 (England 120-1)
The run rate is just under 14 an over. Motie quietens things down and then gets Smith! Caught in the deep by the aforementioned Hetmyer. My days, West Indies needed that.
Updated
8th over: England 113-0 (Duckett 60, Smith 53) Jamie Smith channels his inner Babe Ruth and baseball swats Romario Shepherd for SIX over midwicket! The bowler finds his yorker next ball for a dot but Smith pounces on length and deposits for SIX once more down the ground. That’s a first T20I fifty for Smith, brought up in some style. SIX MORE! Oh em gee. That is massive! Smith goes biiiiiig over extra cover for SIX more, the third of the over.
Salt, meet Wound. Smith is then shelled by Hetmyer off the final ball, lacerating through the covers, the ball bursts through the fielders and hands and plops onto the turf.
7th over: England 92-0 (Duckett 52, Smith 40) Smith trots down and launches the spin of Gudakesh Motie for SIX over the leg side. It is a calmer though, nine runs off it.
6th over: England 86-0 (Duckett 50, Smith 33) Holder returns and Smith drives handsomely for four. A single down the ground brings a moment of respite but it is only a moment as Duckett carves for four next ball. Holder spears in a decent yorker for a lesser spotted dot ball. Duckett gives himself room by backing into the leg-side and upper cuts for four. Duckett keeps strike with a single off the last ball and it takes him to Fifty off just 20 balls. He’s hit ten fours!
A blistering powerplay from England. Will the end of the fielding restrictions bring some respite for West Indies? I think you and I both know the answer to that particular question.
Updated
5th over: England 69-0 (Duckett 41, Smith 28) The rampage continues from England’s opening pair. Duckett slaps Alzarri Joseph for a flat SIX on the pull and then cover drives for four more. Cheeky! Duckett reverse-scoops over the keeper for another boundary. Carnage! Joseph ducks for cover as Duckett slaps a length ball back past him and it nearly cleans the bowler up. Wise move Alzarri, not the face – you’ve got a corporate for Allied Dunbar. Another 18 runs plundered for England.
4th over: England 51-0 (Duckett 23, Smith 28) Romario Shepherd replaces Holder. His first ball is bludgeoned by Smith down the ground but Holder swoops down and plucks it off the turf. Not even Holder’s lissom limbs can reach the next couple of shots from Jamie Smith – a pull into the leg side for four and a lofted SIX down the ground. Shepherd feeling the pressure, he takes the pace off and is still clubbed for four by Smith. This pitch looks a belter and is playing like the M1. Eighteen runs off the over and fifty up for England in four overs.
3rd over: England 33-0 (Duckett 22, Smith 11) A drag down from Hosein is slapped to the square boundary by Duckett. Don’t bowl there, son. Duckett plinks down the ground for a couple, losing his shape slightly as he tries to go down the ground. SIXAH! The pint sized opener smears a big one on the sweep behind square. Four more down the ground all along the baize. Shai Hope can’t plug the gaps and Duckett is manipulating the field with aplomb. Seventeen runs off the over.
Updated
2nd over: England 15-0 (Duckett 6, Smith 9) Jason Holder with the second over, long limbs chugging into the crease and decent bounce off the custard cream coloured surface. Shot! Smith drives on the up over mid-on with that deliciously clean swing of the blade. Sizeable outfield in at the Utilita (as no one calls it) boundaries harder to find than at postage stamp sized Bristol.
1st over: England 7-0 (Duckett 5, Smith 2) Akeal Hosein starts for West Indies. His jet lag should be vanquished by now, he landed on the morning of the last game. Starts with a quiet five balls for just three runs but Duckett gets down and pings the last ball on the reverse-sweep for four.
Updated
Here come the players, Jamie Smith and Ben Duckett to open up for England. Let’s play!
We’ll be underway in less than ten minutes. Just enough time to dig into Don McRae’s wide reaching interview with Pat Cummins on the eve of the WTC Final. Some topics were still off-limits though…
But the ball-tampering saga remains an awkward topic. He listens quietly while I tell him about my 2021 interview with Cameron Bancroft who, as a callow opening batter trying to find his way in Test cricket, followed instructions to use sandpaper to rough up the ball. His captain, Steve Smith, David Warner and Bancroft were banned and the batter, when pressed on whether any of the bowlers had known of the plan, told me that “it’s probably self-explanatory”.
Cummins took seven wickets in that Test, which Australia lost heavily, and I ask if he really had no idea what was being done to the ball. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he says bluntly.”
Updated
England bat very deep and will be looking to get a big total on the board, especially with their opponents swapping out a bowler in Roston Chase. The visitors will need early wickets otherwise it could be a long couple of hours of chasing and fetching leather as the sun goes down in Southampton.
ICYMI - West Indies’ leading run scorer and most capped T20I player announced his retirement from international cricket today at the age of just 29. He’s a huge name to turn his back on playing for his country and they’ll miss his runs and experience with a T20I world cup looming. The reasons and ramifications will be much discussed.
Teams – England are unchanged. West Indies bring in Shimron Hetmyer for Roston Chase.
England: Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett, Jos Buttler (wk), Harry Brook (capt), Tom Banton, Jacob Bethell, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Brydon Carse, Adil Rashid, Matthew Potts
West Indies: Johnson Charles, Evin Lewis, Shai Hope (c & wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Gudakesh Motie, Alzarri Joseph
West Indies win the toss and choose to bowl
Shai Hope calls the coin correctly and inserts England. A lovely summer’s evening down in Hampshire and this time it is West Indies who fancy a chase.
“We want to start nailing teams down into the ground” says an uncompromising Harry Brook after the toss. I take it all back, that doesn’t sound particularly lyrical. Certainly not the stuff of a poetical love song.
Preamble
“Invoice me for the microphone later”…
Anyone else think Harry Brook has got a touch of the Alex Turners about him? The Yorkshire drawl, the swagger, the confidence in his own talent, the feeling that perhaps he could come to define a generation?
The white ball results have been something of a ‘Harrystorm’ since Brook took over, with England five from five across ODIs and T20Is, Brook ‘n’ his merry men have been going hell for leather and getting funky in the process.
“We fancy a chase” Brook said with that rock and roll eh languid confidence after the toss in Bristol and he got what he wished for – West Indies racked up 196 runs in their twenty overs.
No mither, Brook’s boys made short shrift of the visitor’s total, Buttler, Bethell and Banton catching the eye and sending Shai Hope and his team from the ritz to the rubble.
Hello and welcome to the third and final T20 match of the series from Southampton. Play gets underway at 6.30pm and a win today will complete the clean sweep for England.
Don’t believe the hype?
Updated
