England too strong for West Indies at World Twenty20
While the West Indies notched the win they needed against Ireland in their opening World Twenty20 group match on Friday, there are still major concerns for the hosts against stronger opposition.
Though the Caribbean side emerged from that encounter as the 70-run victors, there will need to be some major improvement’s to their batting if they are to challenge a rapidly improving England side in today’s Group D match.
Granted, the West Indies were without captain Chris Gayle (muscle strain) for that match, but that doesn’t excuse the likes of stand-in captain Dwayne Bravo and opener Shivnarine Chanderpaul for failing to stand up to the Irish bowling attack. Instead, it was left to Darren Sammy, with a valuable 30 from 17 towards the end of the innings, to help the home side to a moderate 138-run total.
Encouragingly, the West Indies’ bowlers inflicted the required damage on Ireland’s batsmen, dismissing William Porterfield’s side for just 68, with Ravi Rampaul finishing with figures of 3-17 from three overs.
While the win against Ireland should have secured the hosts passage to the Super Eight stage (it’s hard to see England surrendering their other group match to Ireland), Paul Collingwood’s side will present a sterner test of the West Indies’ mettle.
Once Kevin Pietersen takes to the field we have been assured the dynamic batsman will not be taking an early pass back to England regardless of any potential developments during the match concerning the impending birth of his first child.
Pietersen found form with both bat and ball in the IPL and looms as one of England’s most dangerous players in this, and every other World Twenty20 match he’s present for.
This will also be the first chance to see Craig Kieswetter in action in a Twenty20 International, after his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it elevation from England Lions player to England’s sole wicketkeeping option in the Caribbean. This latest South African-born England player possesses the raw power-hitting that makes for a great Twenty20 batsman but he’s as yet unproven at this level, with three ODIs against Bangladesh the sum total of his international experience.
Still, Collingwood (pictured) is his side’s Mr Reliable, and even if it takes Kieswetter and Eoin Morgan a couple of matches to settle down it’s hard to see England’s batsmen falling apart in the same manner as Ireland did on Friday.
To make matters worse for the West Indies, they face a bowling line-up that will be headed by Graeme Swann, who missed out on an IPL berth due to his limited availability for the series this year, but who finished England’s winter tours of South Africa and Zimbabwe as their most in-form player. The hopefully rested and recovered pace duo of Stuart Broad and James Anderson should cause further difficulties for a West Indies line-up that struggled against the Irish.
It’s fair to say we won’t get an exact gauge on England’s World Twenty20 title chances after the group stage, but today’s match against the West Indies will be their first opportunity to send a message to the rest of the competition that they intend to leave the Caribbean with a precious souvenir.
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