Sammy seals series for West Indies

 

West Indies outmuscled England to win the T20 series 2-0 with one to play courtesy of a five-wicket win with seven balls to spare at Kensington Oval. England worked hard to hang in the game, especially with the ball, but West Indies struck 11 sixes to England's six and ultimately their extra power proved impossible to contain.

The big beast, Chris Gayle, who only a few days ago had been wondering about the state of his glutes, commandeered West Indies' innings with five gluteus maximuses, three of them flying onto the roof of the stands and out of the ground. James Tredwell risked a cricked neck as he watched three sail skywards, but still only conceded 27: the West Indies, did not bother themselves with too many singles.

But Ravi Bopara, at his most sagacious with the ball, turned in a commendable spell, 10 runs conceded from four overs of devil's confetti to equal England's most economical full spell in T20. He had Gayle outwitted, chopping on for 36 from 30 balls. West Indies, having patted Bopara back with no sense of urgency, had seven wickets intact and 37 to get from four overs, but the immensity of the task suddenly dawned on them when Tim Bresnan dismissed Marlon Samuels and Andre Russell to leg-side catches in successive balls.

The final fusillade came from Darren Sammy, an unbeaten 30 from only nine balls with the rope cleared three times: so much for a tricky target of 31 from the last three overs. "Good momentum… we're looking good," said Sammy. Nobody could question that. He mullered some attempted yorkers from Jade Dernbach and Bresnan over the ropes and he will go to Bangladesh as a captain content about his own game.