That's a wrap on the first T20I of this 5-match series between West Indies and England with the hosts coming out on top in the end. Both teams head off to Grenada now for the next two T20IS. Do join us for those games and for all other cricketing actions across the globe, stay tuned to our network.
For now, this is AyanChatterjee signing off on behalf of my co-commentator AkshayaKrishna Polya alongside scorer/analyst Bishal Mandal. Stay safe, happy, and cool. Goodbye and CHEERS!
Highest SuccessfulRunChase at Barbados in T20IS:
172/6 by West Indies against England in 2023* 155/5 by West Indies against England in 2014. 151/4 by England against Pakistan in 2010 148/3 by England against Australia in 2010 115/4 by Pakistan against West Indies in 2017.
Rovman Powell (West Indies Captain): "Yeah, I think it was a tough performance. After the Powerplay, we came together and got the information about how the pitch was behaving, with Russell passing over the information. Then the batters delivered as well.
It's the captain's role which comes first, but that doesn't take over during my batting. I just trust myself and play accordingly.
We still have some room for improvement. Some teams don't have those big hitters in the middle order, but that is the luxury we have in us. Some teams struggle to get going after their top order gets out, but that is not the case with us. We can do better in bowling during the Powerplay phase. If we do that, not a lot of teams will have such power down the order, and they'll be on the back foot.
Many teams looking in around the World Cup (2024 T20 WC). We haven't yet looked that far ahead at the moment. We haven't arrived in the World Cups as of now. We are just focusing on the job on our hands, and that is to do well in this series and do well in the next game at Grenada. We're looking at the possible opportunities before that tournament, get our team set and then we have a good chance."
Jos Buttler (EnglandCaptain): "It was. It was always going to get harder. West Indies adapted better and we should have got to 200+ from where we were. We have to keep pushing the boundaries and finding ways of scoring more and more. We have to find a way in doing it. The conditions changed a bit and West Indies have big hitters and they deserve the win. I think Salt played well and we need to learn how to go about things. We need to learn how to hit more sixes than the West Indies as they hit more sixes than us. So, these are the areas we need to work on and get learnings ahead of the next two games in Grenada."
Andre Rusell (POTM): "Actually, Bish (Ian Bishop), that (life) is how it goes, quite funny. I am not sure that anyone will believe what I will say now, but that is what it is. I dreamt of and believed that I would get Player of the Match in the first game on my return as soon as I got selected for the squad. I didn't know how it would have happened, though.
It was a good surface, but we needed to take the pace of the ball and make it difficult for the batters. Since the CPL season, the wicket has been up and down, two-paced, and you'll have to bowl a lot more cutters. We bowled in the second half after being taken for runs in the first due to bowling with pace-on.
With Rovman Powell, it's always a good feeling to bat on. He supports you all the way and being a captain, he himself contributes a lot, with a few of the big hits. It was all about batting in pairs; we both have power, and we knew we could finish off the game if we batted deep."