England beats West Indies by 21 runs in T20 series opener
CHESTER-LE-STREET, England (AP) — England continued its mastery of the West Indies by winning their Twenty20 series opener by 21 runs on Friday.
After dominating the West Indies in three one-day internationals, England was expected to receive a tougher fight from the visitor, higher-rated in T20s than ODIs, and bolstered by World Cup champions Andre Russell, Jason Holder and Johnson Charles.
But the West Indies didn't have world No. 2-ranked T20 bowler Akeal Hosein, who, along with batter Jyd Goolie, was unable to travel to England because of recent changes to U.K. visa entry requirements for Trinidad and Tobago citizens.
Hosein was badly missed on a pitch that suited spin.
The match-winner was left-arm spinner Liam Dawson, recalled by England after nearly three years out at the age of 35. He'd taken six wickets in 11 T20s from 2016-22, but produced a career-best 4-20 in four overs. Dawson took out Charles, Sherfane Rutherford, Roston Chase and Rovman Powell, four of the top six batters.
He and fellow spinner Adil Rashid, 1-22, helped to choke a deep West Indies lineout to 167-9 in a chase of 189.
Under England's brand new T20 captain Harry Brook, the old captain Jos Buttler set up a defendable total with 96 runs off 59 balls.
Buttler worked the field so well he looked set to achieve his second T20 hundred in his 135th match. But he moved across while facing Alzarri Joseph and was beaten for pace and out lbw in the 19th over. He hit six boundaries and four sixes.
'I'm very pleased to get this series up and running with a win,' Brook said.
'It's unbelievable to have Dawson and Rashid working from both ends, operating the way they've done for so many years, and that wealth of experience. Jos Buttler is unbelievable. To have him in this T20 team batting in the top three, it's an honor.'
England ended up at 188-6, pegged back by the West Indies after the host bolted out of the gates to 78-1 in the powerplay.
West Indies spinner Gudakesh Motie did much to haul in England, his four overs conceding only 21 runs, 15 of them to Buttler.
But Motie had only Chase as spin support, and Buttler devoured the pacers.
'A lot of teams like to throw spin at West Indies,' West Indies captain Shai Hope said. 'We need to get better as a batting unit. We've got so much depth. We're so powerful, so destructive. We've got to put this behind us and we've got two games to win the series.'
The second of three T20s is on Sunday in Bristol.
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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
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