Woakes saves England after almighty scare
ENGLAND overcame a huge scare to win their final warm-up match against a West Indies President’s Board XI by two wickets.
Chris Woakes (below) saw his side over the line with an unbeaten 47 as eoin Morgan’s team chased down 234 with just seven balls to spare at Warner Park. They had been reduced to 177 for seven against opposition that included Antiguan man mountain Rahkeem Cornwall.
The 24-year- old all-rounder stands at 6ft 7in tall and weighs in at 22 stone. He was in the thick of the action as he scored 59 from 61 balls to help the President’s XI post 233 in 48 overs. Cornwall’s off-spin then picked up the wicket of Moeen Ali for two as england collapsed from 128 for one to flirt with defeat.
But victory came at a cost after Jake Ball sustained a knee injury that makes him a major doubt for the threematch series against the West Indies that starts in Antigua on Friday.
The Nottinghamshire fast bowler pulled up in the sixth over with pain in his right knee. He will have a scan in the coming days but looks likely to be ruled out of the rest of this tour, given it ends on March 9.
One piece of good news for england is the confirmation that opener Alex Hales, who was left out of the original tour party with a broken right hand, will arrive in Antigua today to continue his rehabilitation .
Hales is expected to be officially added to the squad next week but will not play in the first ODI.
Jason Roy, who missed this match with the bruised right palm he sustained during fielding drills last week, is expected to be fit to play on Friday.
He could be partnered at the top of the order by Jonny Bairstow, who top- scored for england in this match with 86 as a makeshift opener.
Bairstow could now be ahead of sam Billings for that position after the Kent batsman was dismissed for two. That was his second failure of the tour following his 14 in saturday’s opening warm-up match.
PRESIDENT’S XI 233 (48ov), Woakes 9-1-37-2, Ball 2.1-0-6-0, Plunkett 9.5-0-44-3, Stokes 7-0-35-3, Moeen 10-1-48-1, Rashid 10-0-56-1.
ENGLAND 234-8 (48.5ov), Bairstow 86 (97b), Root 46 (67b), Woakes 47 (47b).