(Cricket News) With a second consecutive century from opener Phil Salt following a brilliant start with captain Jos Buttler, world champion England set up a Twenty20 series-deciding match with the West Indies after crushing the fourth game by 75 runs on Tuesday.
England scored their highest T20 score of 267-3. The West Indies kept up the required run rate but could not stop leaking wickets and was all out for 192 in the 16th over.
Salt and Buttler amassed 117 runs in 9.5 overs at the same Brian Lara Stadium on Thursday. Buttler was caught on the boundary for a 29-ball 55. Salt was on 61 when he accelerated even further, reaching a 48-ball hundred and becoming the first Englishman to score two T20 hundreds.
He was bowled by Andre Russell yorker for the highest T20 score by an Englishman, 119. Salt’s second ton in three days featured 10 sixes and seven boundaries. The West Indies started with a golden duck for Brandon King, who top-edged Moeen Ali straight to Reece Topley.
But England was still destroying the West Indies bowlers, with Will Jacks scoring 24 off nine deliveries and Liam Livingstone smashing an undefeated 54 off 21, including four sixes and four boundaries.
Their 267-3 was the fifth-highest score in men’s T20 history. Kyle Mayers was the only bowler to concede less than nine per over, and he bowled just one over. The West Indies was forced to hit hard, and Ali did not bowl again until Nicholas Pooran scored 20 by the end of the first over. However, the West Indian batters could match Salt or even Buttler.
By the time Pooran was out for 39 off 15 in the fifth over, the West Indies were already three down for 58 runs, and by the time the seventh over reached 100 runs, they were four down. However, by the end of the ninth over, the home side had also lost Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, and Jason Holder.
Russell was the final man out for a team-high 51 off 25 balls, giving Topley a leading three wickets. Sam Curran and Rehan Ahmed shared the remaining wickets.
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