West Indies batting lineup is filled with big-hitters from top to the bottom. Even their no.11 player can walk out and hit a few sixes. Their big-hitting has been their biggest strength and one of the reasons why they are the only team to lift the T20 World Cup trophy twice. But in the ongoing edition, it turned out to be their weakest quality.
Batting only in one gear
Normally, after losing a few wickets in the powerplay overs, teams resort to a damage control mode and aim for a fighting total with wickets in hand in the death overs. It was quite the opposite for Kieron Pollard-led West Indies. After losing four wickets in the powerplay overs, they continued the attacking approach and ended up registering their lowest total in the 14-year-old history of T20 World Cup.
Fatal dot balls
While almost every batter got out trying to hit the ball out of the park and on Dubai roads, West Indies were able to hit just one six in the innings. 30 of their 55 runs came from boundaries while three were extras. Pollard’s team scored just 22 runs with their running between the wickets. There was a lack of belief in rotating the strike as they waited to slog it and ended up facing 59 dot balls out of 86 deliveries they faced. Even if they would have managed to take singles on half of the dot balls, it would have helped in building a partnership and eventually play out the total 20 overs.
No anchor role
In the embarrassing total of 55, nine of the batters registered single-digit scores. Veteran batter Chris Gayle was the top-scorer for defending champions, with run-a-ball 13. Amidst the chaos, West Indies clearly missed a batter who could hold on to one end and pace the innings.
Massive win for England
It was not a cakewalk for England batters chasing a lowly target of 56. Jos Buttler did not make the same mistake as West Indies batters and stayed till the end. The wicketkeeper-batter remained unbeaten as England chased down the total with 70 balls to spare. On a bad day for West Indies, Akeal Hosein turned out to be the only positive. Hosein took two wickets for 24 runs in his four overs. The left-arm spinner also pulled off an acrobatic caught and bowled off his own bowling to dismiss Jonny Bairstow. Surprisingly, Dawid Malan did not walk out to bat even when England lost four wickets. Eoin Morgan walked in to bat and ensured that they do not lose any more wickets and finish off the run chase without any drama. The win also had a huge impact on England's net run rate which will come in handy in later stages of Group 2 which is also termed as ‘Group of Death’.
