Tim Paine vying to play for Tasmania to regain full fitness before Ashes series

T20 World Cup | England annihilate defending champions West Indies to announce their supremacy

In what could be termed as an anti-climax, England annihilated West Indies by six wickets inside 10 overs of batting after bundling them over for a mere 55. Such was the magnitude of England’s dominance in the game that they have rocketed their net run rate to a staggering +3.46 on the points table. There was a huge sense of expectations and build-up for this game as the finalists of the last world cup were meeting in their opening encounter of the game, but it turned out to be a damp squib with only England turning up with their best. England were ruthless in their approach with the ball and the skipper Morgan would have wanted the same ruthlessness with the bat as well but batsmen were not as clinical in their game. Nevertheless, England hit the ground running in the game right from the second over of the game when Chris Woakes perplexed Evin Lewis with a slower delivery and Moeen Ali clung on to a fantastic catch running back from mid-off. From that point of the game, it was no coming back for the defending champions and the Englishmen established their authority over the game with each passing delivery. After Lewis, Moeen dragged an aerial shot off Lendl Simmons’ bat to deep midwicket and a perfectly positioned Liam Livingstone was all over the moon with that easy opportunity. The duo of Chris Gayle and Shimron Hetmyer threw caution into the wind and played delightful strokes off Woakes and Moeen respectively. However, the wily off-spinner got the better of him by bowling a faster, back of length delivery that hurried onto him and he could not hit his pull shot over Morgan at short mid-wicket and the Windies were in tatters. Gayle continued on his merry way and attacked Tymal Mills, but the left armer was smarter than him on the occasion and he cramped him with a short delivery that the “Universe Boss” tried to blast over the leg side. Dwayne Bravo was promoted up the order ahead of Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard to stabilise the innings and he did not do untoward things to get out. Instead, he was the victim of a superb catch by Jonny Bairstow at the point and all the hopes of Windies hitting their way out of trouble was disappearing. Tymal Mills returned to edge Pooran behind the wicket and the Windies needed a hell of a lot of luck and magic to come out of the rut they found themselves in. Their last hope was resting on the bale shoulders of Andre Russell and Pollard but Adil Rashid, who was away from the buffet of wickets in the early part of the game, got the big fish of Russel with a beauty that breached an out of character defensive prod. If the flop show was not enough, Rashid returned with his second over and got the better of Pollard, who was desperate to make a statement than playing out the entire length of 20 overs and Windies obituaries were finally on the scoreboard. Rashid finished with an astonishing bowling figure of 2.2-0-2-4 and England made a light work of the experienced and explosive batting lineup of West Indies. In pursuit of a mere 56, England were off to a decent start as Jason Roy and Jos Buttler were on the money with crisp shots. However, there was a mini-collapse halfway through the powerplay as the left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein picked two caught and bowled wickets of Bairstow and Liam Livingstone in an outrageous manner. Albeit the game did not end in a perfect finish for England, but the team management led by Eoin Morgan would be delighted to see his troops coming firing all their cylinders and bamboozling the world champions in the first game of the tournament. In a way, the game could also be seen as a statement by England to their critics who doubt their game plan and strength in these conditions. First, the game between Australia and South Africa that turned out to be a low-scoring thriller, the night game between England and West Indies turned out to be a dampener, and the arch-rivals England Australia would be the happier side to go past the first day with a win in their pockets.

T20 World Cup | Twitter erupts as Akeal Hosein flies in the air to grab one-handed screamer

West Indies left-arm spinner, Akeal Hosein left Twitter erupting after grabbing an exceptional effort off his own bowling. In the match against England, Hosein flew to his left in the follow-through and clung on to a leading edge off the bat of Liam Livingstone. Hosein showed incredible athleticism to bend his body and grab the ball parallelly to his popping crease to make things difficult for England in their chase. West Indies were rocked at 55 all out by England and Hosein picked two wickets including Livingstone’s wicket to leave England 39/4.

T20 World Cup | England bundle West Indies out for their lowest WC total

England started off their World T20 campaign on a dominating note by rattling the defending champions West Indies in the first 10 overs of their first game of the tournament. Windies batting unit never looked comfortable and the English bowling attack was disciplined enough to ask a lot of questions of them. Chris Woakes was the first one to strike when he sent Evin Lewis back to the pavilion after flummoxing him on a slower ball. Moeen Ali, who opened the bowling, soon joined the party as Eoin Morgan’s match up game turned out to be a masterstroke. He first got the better of Lendl Simmons and made him hit to the fielder station perfectly at deep midwicket and got Shimron Hetmyer on a relatively easier ball. There was no end to Windies’ misery as Tymal Mills celebrated his long-awaited return to international cricket with a big wicket of Chris Gayle. He followed with another big wicket of Nicholas Pooran off a full delivery that took the edge of his bat and Jos Buttler was delighted to pouch that. At the end of the 10 over-mark, West Indies were reeling at 44/6 and had only the duo of Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell remaining at the crease among batsmen with quality. Only unused bowler till that point, Adil Rashid came into the attack and castled Russell’s defence to leave Windies on the brink.

T20 World Cup | AUS vs SA: Proteas bowlers make Aussies work hard for first win despite small target

Australia had to work a bit hard to etch a win against South Africa despite getting a good start from the bowlers in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Chasing 119 in 20 overs the Australian team lost some early wickets and were reduced to 38/3 before Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell joined hands to stitch a stand of 42 runs for the fourth wicket. But Smith’s departure for 35 was followed by Maxwell’s dismissal who was undone by Tabraiz Shamsi as the Aussie side was left tottering at 81/5 in the 16th over. Later, Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade took the onus on themselves and steadied the ship for the side with an unbeaten partnership of 40 runs for the sixth wicket. Stoinis remained unbeaten at 24 off 16 while Wade struck a 10-ball 15* to see the side home by 5 wickets in the final over. Anrich Nortje was the pick of the bowlers who scalped a couple of wickets for 21 runs in 4 overs while Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj and Shamsi bagged a wicket apiece during the course. Earlier, in the day, Aaron Finch who won the toss asked South Africa to bat first and the Australian bowlers responded pretty well. First Glenn Maxwell cleaned up a dangerous-looking Temba Bavuma and then Josh Halewood scalped a couple of wickets in quick succession that included the dismissal of Quinton de Kock. The Proteas were soon reduced to 46/4 before Aiden Markram and David Miller tried to provide some resistance to the side. The right-left batting combination scored 34 runs for the fifth wicket but Miller’s departure broke the shackles and South Africa lost wickets in quick succession to get restricted to 118/9 in 20 overs eventually. Mitchell Starc, Hazlewood and Adam Zampa picked up two wickets each while Maxwell and Cummins had one wicket each to their name. Later, Australia captain Finch lauded Stoinis and Wade for keeping their composure and taking the team over the line. “The dugout was relaxed than I was. Quite stressful, and I was nervous. Stoinis and Wade showed a cool head to get us over the line, and that is what a bit of experience can do. Maxwell did a really good job with the ball. We knew he had good matchups in the powerplay. Our whole bowling unit was outstanding,” he said in the post-match presentation. Australia will now play Sri Lanka on October 28 while South Africa will be up against the West Indies on October 26 in Dubai.