DURHAM, Eng­land, Jun 6, CMC – Jos But­tler’s sparkling half cen­tu­ry cou­pled with Liam Daw­son’s de­struc­tive spell of spin bowl­ing car­ried Eng­land to a dom­i­nant 21-run vic­to­ry over West In­dies in the first T20I on Fri­day.

But­tler fell ag­o­nis­ing­ly short of his sec­ond T20I cen­tu­ry, with his 96 off just 59 balls lay­ing the foun­da­tion for Eng­land’s com­pet­i­tive to­tal of 188 for six of 20 overs.

Play­er-of-the-Match Daw­son then tore through the West In­dies’ mid­dle or­der, grab­bing four wick­ets with his left-arm spin to help re­strict them to 167 for nine at the end of their 20 overs.

It was an­oth­er for­get­table bat­ting dis­play from the vis­i­tors, with open­er Evin Lewis’ knock of 39 from 23 balls be­ing the lone bright spark.

Hav­ing done well to lim­it Eng­land in the lat­ter part of their in­nings, West In­dies got off to a fly­ing start in their chase with Lewis and John­son Charles putting on 27 runs in three overs.

Daw­son got the break­through when he lured Charles out of his crease to be stumped for 18 be­fore medi­um pac­er Matthew Potts ac­count­ed for the cru­cial wick­et of cap­tain Shai Hope to leave West In­dies 33 for two in the sixth over.

Lewis and Ros­ton Chase then added 58 runs in just over four overs to help re­vive the vis­i­tors’ in­nings.

But af­ter blast­ing left-arm spin­ner Ja­cob Bethell’s first five balls for 24 runs, Lewis un­wise­ly tried to hit the fi­nal ball of the over out of the ground, but on­ly man­aged to pick out Bry­don Carse at mid­wick­et who took a good catch div­ing for­ward to make it 91 for three at the halfway stage.

Daw­son then swung the match com­plete­ly in Eng­land’s favour by snar­ing the wick­ets of Sher­fane Ruther­ford for three, Chase for 24 and Rov­man Pow­ell for 13, to re­duce the vis­i­tors to 115 for six in the 14th over.

With bound­aries need­ed, Ro­mario Shep­herd and Ja­son Hold­er sur­pris­ing­ly chose to work the ball around for sin­gles, leav­ing them­selves with the al­most im­pos­si­ble task of scor­ing 37 runs from the fi­nal over.

Daw­son fin­ished with 4-20 from his four overs, while Bethell (2-27) and Matthew Potts (2-48), pro­vid­ed good sup­port,

Ear­li­er, But­tler played a gem of an in­nings dur­ing his hour and 20-minute stay at the crease.

Shep­herd struck an ear­ly blow when he had Ben Duck­ett caught be­hind for just one, but open­er Jamie Smith and But­tler blast­ed the West In­dies’ bowlers to all parts of the ground dur­ing a 79-run part­ner­ship for the sec­ond wick­et in just over six overs.

But­tler was es­pe­cial­ly se­vere on fast bowler Alzarri Joseph, who he hit for three six­es and a four in the sixth over that leaked 23 runs.

He brought up his 50 off 25 balls with a sin­gle off Shep­herd, but with his very next de­liv­ery Shep­herd claimed Smith’s wick­et for 38.

But­tler seemed on track for a cen­tu­ry, but Joseph got his re­venge by trap­ping him lbw four runs short, to spark a West In­dies fight­back that lim­it­ed Eng­land un­der 200.

Shep­herd was the pick of the bowlers with 2-33.

Sum­marised Scores

ENG­LAND 188-6 in 20 overs (Jos But­tler 96, Jamie Smith 38, Ja­cob Bethell 23 not out; Ro­mario Shep­herd 2-33) vs WEST IN­DIES 167-9 in 20 overs (Evin Lewis 39, Ros­ton Chase 24, John­son Charles 18, Ja­son Hold­er 16 not out, Ro­mario Shep­herd 16, An­dre Rus­sell 15, Rov­man Pow­ell 13; Liam Daw­son 4-20, Ja­cob Bethell 2-27, Matthew Potts 2-48).

(CMC)