Saqib Mahmood, Sam Curran shine as England register first T20I series win in Caribbean in five years – India TV

Image Source : GETTY IMAGES Saqib Mahmood celebrates a wicket with teammates Jamie Overton and Phil Salt.

Saqib Mahmood’s excellent spell (3/17) of fast bowling guided England to their first T20I series win over West Indies in the Caribbean in five years as they claimed the third T20I of the ongoing five-match series by three wickets.

Chasing 146 to win, England got off to an underwhelming start as they lost wicketkeeper-batter Phil Salt (4 off 8 balls), Jos Buttler (4 off 5 balls) and Jacob Bethell (4 off 2 balls) inside the powerplay. Akeal Hosein was the chief tormentor for England as the left-arm orthodox bowler dismissed Salt and Buttler before they could run away with the game.

However, the batting pair of Will Jacks and Sam Curran restored some semblance of order with a 38-run stand for the fourth wicket and rescued England from harm’s way. Jacks played a sedate knock against his nature and scored 32 off 33 deliveries with the help of three boundaries before getting out to Gudakesh Motie.

After Jacks’ departure, Curran added 39 more runs for the fifth wicket alongside Liam Livingstone and pulled the game from the grasp of the hosts. Curran’s counterattacking knock (41 runs off 26 balls) dented West Indies badly and allowed Livingstone to take his time in the middle.

West Indies claimed a flurry of wickets towards the end but it was not enough to make a resounding comeback as the visitors chased the target down with four balls to spare.

Earlier in the day, England called it correctly at the toss and sent West Indies in. The decision worked wonders in the favour of the tourists as they had the hosts on the mat immediately.

Saqib and Jamie Overton (3/20) ravaged the West Indies batting order. The Men in Maroon lost five of their wickets inside the powerplay with just 37 runs on the board and were only playing catch-up cricket afterwards.

A gritty half-century from captain Rovman Powell (54 off 41 balls) and two key contributions from Romario Shepherd (30 off 28 balls) and Alzarri Joseph (21* off 19 balls) guided West Indies to a respectable total of 145 in their 20 overs.