England beat Windies in First T20 in UK-by Alan Gardner
Source:Thuppahis
England 188 for 6 (Buttler 96) beat West Indies 167 for 9 (Lewis 39, Dawson 4-20) by 21 runs
Buttler scored almost exactly half of England’s runs but did most of the heavy lifting to give his successor, Harry Brook, a largely comfortable first outing as T20I captain. Jamie Smith and Jacob Bethell were the only other batters to make double-figures on a lop-sided scorecard, but West Indies paid for a profligate start with the ball that allowed England to race away to 78 for 1 at the end of the powerplay.
Run-scoring became harder thereafter on a Chester-le-Street surface that was unusually receptive to slow bowling – something England had twigged by only including two seamers in their XI. Having notched a half-century from 25 balls, Buttler added 46 from his next 34 as partners came and went but did enough to steer England to an above-par total.
West Indies struggled to get going in reply. Dawson opened the bowling and made the breakthrough in his second over, luring Johnson Charles from his ground, before Matthew Potts removed West Indies’ new T20I captain, Shai Hope, with his second ball on debut. Evin Lewis briefly threatened to fire up the chase during an over from Bethell than cost 24 – but he was caught in the deep from the final ball, and when Dawson claimed the wickets of Sherfane Rutherford and Roston Chase in the space of three balls, the jig was as good as up.
Dawson steps up on return
It is only just over a year since Dawson seemed to have turned his back on international cricket, after 20 sporadic appearances across formats since his debut in 2016. He was overlooked for the Test tour of India, and seemed happy to embrace a future on the T20 franchise circuit rather than carrying drinks for England.
However, his continued excellence for Hampshire, coupled with the retirement of Moeen Ali and the decision to drop Liam Livingstone, opened up a window of opportunity with the T20I side. He grasped it with both hands on a chilly Friday night in Durham. His first over was Spandex tight, giving up just four runs; his second saw off Charles with a classic one-two, following a speared-in delivery with one that was beautifully flighted.
West Indies had been 44 for 2 at the end of the powerplay, but recovered somewhat to be 91 for 3 at halfway, needing 98 more. A tight over from Adil Rashid pushed the required run rate above 10, and then Dawson returned to take the guts out of the innings: Rutherford and Chase were caught in the deep before Rovman Powell was castled by one that skidded through from round the wicket. Afterwards, the 35-year-old Dawson admitted to nerves on making his comeback – but by that stage he was holding the Player-of-the-Match award.
England stick to Smith opening gambit
Without Phil Salt on paternity leave, England opted to simply plug in his replacement at opener. Smith had auditioned for the job with a 25-ball fifty opening the batting in the Oval ODI on Tuesday, and was preferred up top to Tom Banton, back in the side for the first time since January 2022 but asked to bat out of position at No. 5.
Buttler does Buttler things
The introduction of Gudakesh Motie brought an immediate slowdown, and signalled that spin could play a more significant role than expected. Motie bowled four boundary-less overs off the reel, while Shepherd returned to remove Smith, who holed out to deep midwicket after being forced to hit square. Brook was bowled by Chase the ball after reverse-slapping him for four, while Banton fell lbw to a marginal call against Russell as England slipped to 116 for 4.
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick
