West Indies won through to the second round Super Eights of the World Twenty20 after beating England by eight wickets in a match turned on its head by rain on Monday.
England made a challenging total of 191 for five, featuring 55 from former Ireland batsman Eoin Morgan, after being sent in to bat by West Indies captain Chris Gayle.
But rain, which had interrupted Sri Lanka’s victory over Zimbabwe earlier here on Monday, effectively rendered that score meaningless.
Instead, the West Indies were left with a revised target of 60 in six overs under the Duckworth/Lewis method for rain-affected matches and they got home with a ball to spare.
England now have a winner-takes-all clash against Ireland, who suffered a 70-run Group D thrashing by the West Indies last week, here on Tuesday to decide which team will join the hosts in the Super Eights.
Paul Collingwood, England’s Twenty20 captain, made no attempt to hide his feelings. “Obviously we are very, very frustrated. I thought the boys played what was a fantastic game today,” he told Sky Sports 1.
“I think 95% of the time when you put 191 runs on the board you are going to win the game.
“Somehow Duckworth/Lewis seems to bring that equation down a fair bit. I don’t know what equation you should have but you shouldn’t have that one. It does get very frustrating as a team when you’ve pretty much played a very good game there and you still come out losers,” the all-rounder added.
“We wanted to win both games, but we have to win tomorrow [Tuesday].”
There was a brief moment of worry for the West Indies when off-spinner Graeme Swann took two wickets in two deliveries to leave the home side 42 for two in the fourth over.
Opening batsman Gayle was caught at short mid-wicket before Kieron Pollard was stumped by debutant wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter.
But Shivnarine Chanderpaul (15 not out) and Andre Fletcher (12 not out) saw the West Indies to victory with a ball to spare as they scored the eight runs they needed off the last over, from fast bowler Stuart Broad.
Gayle said local knowledge had encouraged him to field first.
“The locals are very right about the weather,” he said. “The rain actually fell in our favour, which was unfortunate for England.”
But Gayle said the way his bowlers had been punished by England’s batsmen had left the team with plenty to ponder.
“We have got to go back to the drawing board, but give credit where it’s due and England’s batsmen batted very well,” he said.
“We need to look on the areas where we went wrong.”
Left-hander Morgan faced just 35 balls and struck three sixes and six fours.
Together with Luke Wright, unbeaten on 45 off 27 balls, he put on 95 for the fifth wicket.
England started well thanks to their new South Africa born opening pair of Michael Lumb and Kieswetter.
Lumb, on his international debut, took 16 off one Ravi Rampaul over.
Fast bowler Rampaul’s three overs cost a hugely expensive 52 runs in total.
But in-form West Indies all-rounder Darren Sammy, the man-of-the-match, checked England’s progress with two wickets in the tenth over, bowling Collingwood for six and inducing Kevin Pietersen (24) to hole out to midwicket.
With England 88 for four at the halfway mark, Morgan and Wright consolidated before going for their shots, with England scoring 76 runs in the final five overs of their innings. – AFP