England Secures Victory Against West Indies In T20 World Cup Super 8

ENG vs WI: England defeated West Indies by eight wickets in their first Super 8 match of the T20 World Cup 2024 at Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet in St Lucia on Thursday, June 20.

England chased down the 181-run target in just 17.3 overs, thanks to an unbeaten 87-run knock from Phil Salt. The England opener's innings included seven fours and five sixes. His partnership with Jos Buttler (25) added 67 runs off 46 balls.

Moeen Ali, who came in at three, scored just 13 off 10 balls. Jonny Bairstow provided solid support to Salt with an unbeaten 48 off 26 balls. Earlier, England restricted West Indies to 180/4 after opting to bat first. West Indies were cruising at 102/1 after 12 overs. Salt collected 30 runs from the 16th over bowled by Romario Shepherd.

However, England's bowlers performed well in the middle and death overs, preventing any West Indies batter from reaching a fifty despite several starts. Jofra Archer, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, and Moeen Ali each took a wicket.

Phil Salt was named Man of the Match for his unbeaten 87 runs off 47 balls.

Phil Salt (Man of the Match): "I like batting here, but I'm more happy to have contributed to a good team win. It was tough against spin in the middle overs, but I knew pace would come at some stage. The wind was blowing at one end, there was one short boundary and I backed myself to take on him (on his 30-run over against Shepherd).

"There was a period where I didn't face too many balls, the boundaries had dried up, but Jonny (Bairstow) took the pressure off me with his calculated hitting. His knock was very crucial."

Rovman Powell (West Indies captain): "From a batting perspective, we were 15-20 runs short. We could have given a better display with the ball as a bowling group. We couldn't capitalise in the last five overs but credit to the English bowlers; they executed their plans very well. Just a bit worried, but hopefully he can pull through for the next game. It's always difficult; every time he plays against WI, he hurts us. Our destiny is in our own hands and we need to win well; we need to continue playing good cricket."

Jos Buttler (England captain): "That's a really good performance from us; we executed well with both bat and ball. I thought we bowled really well to restrict such a powerful batting line-up; still, we had to chase it down with smart play from us. The partnership between Salt and Bairstow was great. I brought Jof back there; Pooran and Russell coming in are two of the best batters in the world, so we brought our best bowler back in.

"He's a really important player; he has got so many variations and bowls so well. He batted at No. 4 today; he is a class player and we have decided to keep backing our class players. It was an incredible innings, a mature senior player's innings; he batted with a lot of power. A lot of people say you learn when you lose but I also feel you learn when you win; important to reflect on our performance and look back at what worked for us and focus on the next game."

ENG vs WI: Key Stats

• Romario Shepherd bowled the most expensive over by a West Indies bowler in T20 World Cups, leaking 30 runs in the 16th over. It's the joint fifth most expensive over in T20 World Cup history.
• The West Indies' longest unbeaten streak of eight T20I matches ended after losing against England.
• Phil Salt now has the highest runs (478) in ENG vs WI T20Is.