Chris Gayle-the showstopper

Chasing a mammoth total of 182/6, Chris Gayle made it so simple that the Carribeans won the match by 6 wickets. Gayle with his unbeaten 48-ball 100, led the extraordinary runchase here over England at Mumbai on Wednesday night. West Indies  reached the target with 11 balls remaining. 

Earlier,  Joe Root made an impressive 48 as England powered their way to 182 for 6 . Root struck two sixes and three fours in his 36-ball knock while cameos from Ross Buttler (20-ball 30) and captain Eoin Morgan (27 not out in 14 balls) also helped England to post the challenging score in the Super 10 Group 1 game at the Wankhede Stadium.

Other significant contributions came from opener Alex Hales (28) and Jason Roy and Ben Stokes, who both made 15.

For the West Indies, pacers Andre Russell (2 for 36) and Dwayne Bravo (2 for 41) were the pick of the bowlers.

Put in to bat, England utilised two poor overs from the West Indians in the power play to get off to a good start.

Roy took advantage of a wayward Jerome Taylor in the speedster’s second over as he hit two fours while the bowler conceded five wides too. In all, the over yielded 18 runs.

More gifts followed in leg-spinner Samuel Badree’s next over as he lost control to bowl a full toss first ball that was dispatched to the square leg boundary by Alex Hales. The next ball was swept by Hales to the same region and he cut the third to the cover region for four.

With 31 runs coming in two overs, England’s score raced to 36 in four overs when Andre Russell, who replaced the expensive Taylor, packed off Roy through a fine tumbling catch at short mid-wicket off a flick.