Bowlers do the damage as England begin T20 World Cup with a win

England’s bowlers were to thank for their side’s routine six-wicket win over the West Indies as Eoin Morgan’s side began their T20 World Cup campaign with an emphatic statement.

With the previous T20 World Cup meeting between the two sides being the famous final at Eden Gardens four years ago, events could not have panned out so differently for Kieran Pollard and his team after being bowled out for just 55.

Moeen Ali set the standards early on with the ball and in the field as he produced an impressive catch off the bowling of Chris Woakes to dismiss Evin Lewis for six before removing Lendl Simmons (3) and the dangerous Shimron Hetmyer for nine.

England did not stop there as they continued their search for revenge. On his first international appearance in over three years, Tymal Mills caused the West Indian batsman problems by pushing the 90 mph mark and was rewarded for his efforts with the big wicket of Chris Gayle (13).

It went from bad to worse for the reigning champions, as they lost six wickets for just 24 runs. Dwayne Bravo (5) picked out Jonny Bairstow at backwards-point whilst Mills claimed a second as Nicholas Pooran edged through to Jos Buttler for one.

Adil Rashid then joined the party to see off the experience of Pollard (6) and Andre Russell (0) before cleaning up the tail with relative ease.

The lack of common sense and logic within the West Indies batting will be the greatest cause of concern for Pollard as they continued to throw wickets away without building a platform to their innings.

However, England’s batting performance was far from perfect with Jason Roy (11), Bairstow (9), Ali (3) and Liam Livingstone (1) all falling softly.

Ultimately though, Morgan will view such a heavy win as a near-perfect start to England’s bid to become the first team to hold both the 50 and 20-over world cups simultaneously.

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