All square
England tie series, grab momentum heading into decider
Published:Sunday | January 30, 2022 | 12:13 AMLennox Aldred - Gleaner Writer
IT’S D-DAY for Kieron Pollard and the West Indies team as the winner of today’s fifth and final T20 will walk away with all the marbles following England’s 34-run win to square the five-match series at 2 apiece at Kensington Oval yesterday.
England captain on the day, Moeen Ali, put in a player-of-the-match performance by first making a top score of 63 in a score of 193 for six, then returned to take two wickets to restrict the West Indies to 159 for five.
The Windies tinkered with their line-up for the fourth encounter, bringing in Kyle Mayers for Shai Hope and Dominic Drakes for Fabian Allen, and those changes didn’t do much for the regional side who won the toss, as the visitors finished strong with the bat to post a formidable total.
DECENT START
Jason Roy was his usual attacking self at the top of the order, blasting 53 from 42 balls with five fours and three sixes to give the England side a more-than-decent start.
When Roy fell to Pollard in the 12th over, 93 runs were already on the board, and that was just the platform that skipper Moeen needed to accelerate the innings.
Moeen, batting at number five, came in and immediately looked to push things on, taking apart Jason Holder in the 18th over which went for 28 runs and moved the score from 134 for three to 162 in the space of an over.
That over knocked the stuffing out of the regional side, as Moeen’s 63 came off just 28 balls, the stand-in skipper slamming a four and seven sixes.
James Vince would contribute 34 against Holder, who eventually picked up three wickets for 44 runs in his four overs.
In reply, the West Indies got off to a decent start, with the new opening pair of Brandon King and Kyle Mayers putting on 64 runs for the first wicket. But that momentum was swiftly stymied by Moeen, the spinner sending back the openers within moments of each other. Mayers innings came to an end on 40, and King was on 26 when he had to make the long walk back.
Hero of the third match, Rovman Powell, could not replicate his power hitting from that game and made just five, while Nicholas Pooran blasted a couple of sixes, but he too perished long before he could really do any serious damage at 22. Not for the first time, Pooran holed out, going for one maximum too many, leaving the hosts in trouble at 97 for four in the 14th over.
Jason Holder tried to push things along with a quickfire 36 from 24 balls, but when he went, so too did the momentum in the West Indies innings which petered out at 159 for five in their allotted 20 overs.