England thrashed defending champions West Indies by six wickets in their opening match of the Twenty20 World Cup on Saturday, while Australia beat South Africa in a tense, low-scoring match.
Leg-spinner Adil Rashid took career-best T20 figures of 4-2 as favourites England began the Super 12 stage by skittling West Indies for just 55 in a rematch of the 2016 final.
Chris Gayle (13) was the only West Indies batter to reach double digits as Moeen Ali and Tymal Mills both struck twice before Rashid wrapped up the innings by picking up the last four wickets.
England made hard work of chasing a meagre target but Jos Buttler (24) and skipper Eoin Morgan (7) led the team across the line in 8.2 overs in Dubai.
“We know we have got five, six bowlers there, match winners,” Rashid said when asked about the pitches in the United Arab Emirates helping spinners.
“So on any given day anyone can come and get wickets. For us it’s a bowling unit thing not just spinners or whatever.”
West Indies avoided their worst T20 total of 45 against the same opposition in 2019.
“It was unacceptable, we accept that. These sorts of games sometimes, we just need to bin it,” said West Indies captain Kieron Pollard.
“For us, it’s just a matter of finding our straps. Obviously, we play a lot of cricket around the world, and this is not the first time something like this has happened.”
The two sides met five years after their clash in the 2016 final in Kolkata when Carlos Brathwaite hit Ben Stokes for four straight sixes in the last over.
But with Saturday’s crushing performance, England have fired a warning to their rivals in the seventh edition of T20’s showpiece event.
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