ST GEORGE’S, Grena­da – Vet­er­an An­dre Rus­sell con­ced­ed 24 runs in a shock­ing fi­nal over as Eng­land staged the high­est suc­cess­ful Twen­ty20 In­ter­na­tion­al run chase in the Caribbean, to beat West In­dies by sev­en wick­ets with a ball to spare in a thriller on Sat­ur­day.

Asked to chase a mas­sive 223 at the Na­tion­al Crick­et Sta­di­um in or­der to avoid an ear­ly se­ries de­feat, Eng­land pro­duced a re­mark­able ef­fort to reel in the tar­get, open­er Phil Salt lead­ing the way with an ex­tra­or­di­nary un­beat­en 109 off 56 de­liv­er­ies.

It was Har­ry Brook who won it for the Eng­lish, how­ev­er, the 24-year-old right-han­der smashed a four and three six­es off Rus­sell’s fi­nal over, to fin­ish on a sev­en-ball un­beat­en 31.

The game was still in West In­dies’ favour with Eng­land need­ing 21 runs off the last six balls but Brook flicked the 35-year-old Rus­sell’s first de­liv­ery be­hind square for four, drilled the sec­ond de­liv­ery over cov­er for six be­fore host­ing the third de­liv­ery – a thigh-high full toss – over the ropes at back­ward square.

With five runs re­quired from the last three balls, Brook scram­bled two to deep mid-wick­et be­fore carv­ing the fifth de­liv­ery over third man for an­oth­er six, to pro­pel Eng­land to a stun­ning win which hauled them back in­to the five-match se­ries af­ter they lost the first two games.

“It’s ob­vi­ous­ly dis­ap­point­ing to score 220 and lose but hav­ing said that I think the guys gave it a fair shot,” said a de­ject­ed cap­tain Rov­man Pow­ell.

“I think as a bat­ting group to score 220 was a good ef­fort. We didn’t have the best of starts but the way how the guys fin­ished was com­mend­able and I think the bowlers bowled well in patch­es.”

Man-of-the-Match Salt, who lashed four fours and nine six­es in his maid­en T20 In­ter­na­tion­al hun­dred said: “We’ve been talk­ing as a group about some­one stand­ing up and be­ing a match-win­ner. We were try­ing to get it (tar­get) down to 60, 70 off the last five [overs] and that’s what we did. Then Brooky came in and played a hell of a knock at the end.”

Eng­land cap­tain Jos But­tler, who struck 51 off 34 balls in a bril­liant 115-run open­ing part­ner­ship with Salt, added: “It’s great to keep the se­ries alive. It’s a fan­tas­tic win any­time you chase over 220. It’s a fan­tas­tic ef­fort.

“As to Phil Salt, that’s a bril­liant in­nings, to bat all the way through to be not out at the end, it’s some­thing we spoke about af­ter the last game – stay­ing in the game and to be the guy there at the end, full cred­it to him.”

Left-han­der Nicholas Pooran had ear­li­er top-scored with a ca­reer-best 82 off 45 de­liv­er­ies as West In­dies re­cov­ered from an­oth­er dodgy start to pile up an im­pres­sive 222 for six off their 20 overs – their fifth-high­est T20I to­tal and sec­ond-high­est on Caribbean soil.

With open­ers Bran­don King (8) and Kyle May­ers (0) falling cheap­ly in suc­ces­sive overs to leave West In­dies tot­ter­ing on eight for two in the sec­ond over, Pooran ar­rived to re­vive the in­nings first in a 58-run, third wick­et stand with Shai Hope (26) and then in a 63-run, fifth wick­et part­ner­ship with Pow­ell (39).

Pooran blast­ed a half-dozen fours and six­es, reach­ing his 11th T20I off 37 de­liv­er­ies be­fore even­tu­al­ly per­ish­ing in the 18th over, hol­ing out to wide long-on off leg-spin­ner Adil Rashid (2-32).

Sher­fane Ruther­ford then struck a 17-ball 29 with a brace of fours and six­es and Ja­son Hold­er, a five-ball un­beat­en 18 with a four and two six­es, as West In­dies gath­ered 39 from the last two overs.

Fac­ing a re­quired run rate of just over 11 runs per over, Salt and But­tler gave the in­nings the ide­al start, the skip­per strik­ing five fours and a cou­ple of six­es.

When But­tler and Will Jacks (1) per­ished in suc­ces­sive overs with the ad­di­tion of one run at 116 for two in the 13th over, Salt put on 70 off 33 balls for the third wick­et with Liam Liv­ing­stone who struck an 18-ball 30.

Salt, who reached triple fig­ures off 51 balls in the 18th over, then com­bined with Brooks to win the game in a stag­ger­ing 40-run, un­bro­ken fourth wick­et stand off just 12 balls.

CMC

Scores:

WEST IN­DIES 222 for six off 20 overs (Nicholas Pooran 82, Rov­man Pow­ell 39, Sher­fane Ruther­ford 29, Shai Hope 26; Adil Rashid 2-32, Sam Cur­ran 2-34)

ENG­LAND 226 for three off 19.5 overs (Phil Salt 109 not out, Jos But­tler 51, Har­ry Brook 31 not out, Liam Liv­ing­stone 30)

Re­sult: Eng­land won by sev­en wick­ets.

Se­ries: West In­dies lead 2-1.