Windies go 2-1 up against England on the back of Rovman Powell’s first T20I hundred

Rovman Powell unleashed his inner demon to launch a ballistic assault against the Englishmen on Thursday, 27 January. Powell notched up his first century in the T20Is becoming only the third Windies batsman to achieve the feat after Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis. The quickfire innings of 107 runs off just 53 balls, came largely by punishing the English spinners and debutant George Garton who was hit all over the park.

Despite losing early wickets of Brandon King and Shai Hope inside the powerplay, Nicholas Pooran and Powell put England right back under the pump. Powell hit 10 sixes on the day while Pooran notched up 5 to his name.

Windies ended their outing with 224 runs on board with Powell highlighting the majority of the innings. The score was always going to be near-impossible to chase down and England batters having an off day did not help either.

Barring young Tom Banton nobody else contributed at the top of the batting order and an England victory was taken out of the question by the 13th over of the game. Banton could probably have seen the innings through to his first hundred as well, but the climbing run rate made him desperate enough to hole out to the fielder in the deep.

Just when things looked lost in the middle, a late assault was launched by Philip Salt who was batting out of position in the lower half of the order. The 25-year-old, playing his first game in the T20I format, showed incredible promise to notch 57 off just 24 balls, while others around him struggled to time the cherry.

England could only manage 204/9 in their 20 overs and fell short by 20 runs.

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