Powell stars as WI seek T20I series win

As West Indies take a 2-1 lead into the five-match Twenty20 International series against England at Kensington Oval with the remaining matches set for tomorrow and Sunday, there are aspects of play by Kieron Pollard’s team, which have thrilled regional fans.

Whether it was Jason Holder’s career-best figures of four for seven off 3.4 overs, an unbeaten 52 by opener Brandon King – both in the first match, which West Indies won by nine wickets last Saturday, the late power-hitting by Romario Shepherd and Akeal Hosein in a one-run defeat the following day, or Rovman Powell’s breathtaking, maiden century on Wednesday in a 20-run victory, getting the best out of the team should be of paramount importance.

Powell was a joy to watch. Brought into the side for his first match of the series in place of fellow Jamaican Odean Smith, and against the background of mustering just 66 runs in his previous seven innings including one not out for an average of 11.00, dating back to March 6, 2020 against Sri Lanka in Pallekele, his hundred was richly deserved.

After going to the crease in the sixth over with the score 48 for two, the 28-year-old Powell displayed confidence, commitment and purpose from early.

Powell swept his second ball over square-leg for six off all-rounder Liam Livingstone, who bowls both off and leg-spin, and in the eighth over swung Livingstone for six over long-on. In the following over, he lifted off-spinner Moeen Ali for a straight six off the third ball, and then pulled the next ball through forward square for four.

With disdain, off the first ball of the 10th over from left-arm pacer Tymal Mills, Powell clobbered a six over long-on to move to 38 off 20 balls with one four and four sixes.

At that stage, vice-captain Nicholas Pooran, who was also playing some fine shots, was on 36 off 21 balls with three sixes and two fours but Powell was seemingly grabbing more of the attention.

Powell scored 107 off 53 balls with four fours and ten sixes, having reached his century off 51 deliveries including four fours and nine sixes. His half-century took 31 balls and contained one four and five sixes.

Pooran and Powell added 122 off 11 overs with left-hander Pooran scoring 70 off 43 balls including four fours and five sixes.

West Indies made 224 for five and England responded with 204 for nine.

It is no secret that Powell has struggled against leg-spin bowling but he put his innings on Wednesday in perspective.

“I hit it very good today. Everything came out in the middle,” he said.

“I know that I can strike the ball good, but I also have a little bit of a wristspin problem. Every time I start my innings they come and bowl wristspin. I went away and for the last six, seven months I’ve just been working on wristspin and trying to open up the offside.”

Holder had made some telling comments, calling for greater intent to counter the England spinners following the second match when the ninth-wicket pair of Shepherd and Hosein featured in an unbroken 72-run partnership off only 29 balls after coming together with the score 98 for eight in the 16th over, chasing 172 for victory.

Shepherd scored 44 not out (28 balls, 1 four, 5 sixes) and Hosein was also unbeaten on 44 (16 balls, 3 fours, 4 sixes).

Mind you, Moeen Ali and leg-spinner Adil Rashid had combined for figures of five for 48 in eight overs with Rashid bowling the only maiden over of the match.

“I think we’ve just got to show more intent,” Holder said on the eve of the third match. “We need to be more precise in our footwork and committing to certain things, not being tentative.

“For me personally when you look at West Indies cricket and playing slow bowling over the last decade, a lot of it has been tentative. And that’s because you’re unsure sometimes, yes, but you can be unsure and still show intent and have a bowler guessing.

“I think we’ve got to impose ourselves a little bit more and just show more intent with our footwork and just commit to more stroke-play.

“It all boils down to intent. I think intent goes a very, very long way and it’s a funny word, because a lot of people tend to believe intent means swiping and being aggressive. But you could be showing that intent with your footwork and that’s how batting works.”

In the third match, the spin trio of Livingstone, Rashid and Ali bowled eight overs for 81 runs while picking up two wickets (Livingstone 3-0-42-1, Rashid 4-0-25-1 and Ali 1-0-14-0).

Powell is now only the third West Indian to hit a T20I hundred. The others are left-handers Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis, who both boast of two tons. Gayle scored 117 v South Africa at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, September 11, 2007 and 100 not out v England at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, March 16, 2016; while Lewis struck 100 v India at Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground, Lauderhill, August 27, 2016 and 125 not out v India at Sabina Park, Jamaica, July 9, 2017.

Those who follow the major Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) Competitions closely will recall Powell’s participation while representing Sagicor Life University of West Indies (UWI), the most dominant team across all three formats – Elite, Super Cup (50-over) and T20 – in the last decade.

In the 2016 BCA T20 Cup, Powell played a few swashbuckling knocks. One, which stood out was an unbeaten 120 off only 53 balls with three fours and 12 sixes against ESA Field Pickwick in a total of 237 for four in the semi-finals at the 3Ws Oval before UWI triumphed by 95 runs.

That season, he amassed the most runs in the Tournament – 334 (ave: 55.67).

Later that year, Powell made his One-Day International (ODI) debut against Sri Lanka at the Harare Sports Club in a Tri-Nation series (November 16), while his first T20I was against Pakistan at Kensington Oval in 2017 (March 25).

He has played 37 ODIs, scoring 786 runs with one hundred and two half-centuries (ave: 25.35) and 34 T20Is (484 runs; also one hundred and two half-centuries (ave: 22.00).

As far as the current series is concerned, it was hardly surprising that questions surfaced over the virtual lack of bowling by pacer Smith in the first two matches.

In the first match Smith came on as the fifth of seven bowlers and was given just one over (he conceded four runs) in an England total of 103 all out in 19.4 overs.

He did not bowl in the second when six bowlers were used.

One recalls a virtually similar case in a One-Day International match between West Indies and South Africa at Kensington Oval in 2001 (May 9) when captain Carl Hooper apparently had no faith in Kerry Jeremy, a fast bowler from Antigua, who was playing his fourth ODI at the age of 21, having made his debut the previous year against Sri Lanka in Nairobi in the pre-quarterfinal of the ICC Trophy Tournament.

It was the fifth of a seven-match series and before a crowd of 12 000, with South Africa chasing 200 to win, Jeremy did not bowl a single ball though he was on the field. West Indies used six bowlers and spurred by a century from opener Herschelle Gibbs (107 off 132 balls, 12 fours, 3 sixes) South Africa duly triumphed by seven wickets in 41.4 overs to take a 4-1 lead.

Jeremy played five matches in the series including the last two (South Africa won the series 5-2) but his international career ended abruptly after that series, having taken four wickets in six matches all told (ave: 40.75; Econ: 5.09).

Funny things do happen in this great game of cricket but one expects that Smith, aged 25, and having played three ODIs and seven T20Is, is on course for more international matches.

Keith Holder is a veteran, award-winning freelance sports journalist, who has been covering local, regional and International cricket since 1980 as a writer and commentator. He has compiled statistics on the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) Division 1 (rebranded Elite in 2012) Championship for four decades and provides statistics and stories for the BCA website (www.barbadoscricket.org). Email: Keithfholder@gmail.com