GLORY GRABBERS
England ease home after fired-up Jordan’s star turn
IT took a Barbadianborn fast bowler recruited by england to solve the puzzle created by Chris gayle on this tour but last night it was Chris Jordan rather than the newly acquired Jofra Archer who starred in a four-wicket victory.
Jordan has become something of a Twenty20 specialist after failing to live up to the potential that saw england snatch him from West indies grasp but he chose the eve of the arrival with england of his great friend Archer to remind eoin Morgan of his worth.
it was Jordan, surprisingly barely on england’s 50- over radar these days, who did in this first of three Twenty20 matches what so many england bowlers failed to do in the one-day series in delivering an effective yorker to gayle.
if the ‘Universe Boss’ has a weakness it is to the full ball and he sliced Jordan to short third man for his first failure of this white-ball leg of england’s Caribbean tour after smashing two hundreds and two half-centuries in the 50-over matches.
But Jordan’s biggest moment came when he again showed why he is one of the best fielders in the world, diving to his right across non- striker Nicholas Pooran to take a quite outstanding one-handed return catch and dismiss darren Bravo just when he was reaching his dangerous best.
if Jordan stood out then england could be highly satisfied in hitting back after the last one-day international debacle, restricting the World Twenty20 champions to 160 for eight on a slower st Lucia pitch and then easing home with seven balls in hand, Jonny Bairstow hitting 68 off 40 balls before Joe denly and sam Billings took the tourists to the brink of victory.
it was only the highly promising Pooran who could take on the england attack, with a breathtaking reverse swept six off denly proving the highlight of his 58 off 37 balls.
Now that coach Trevor Bayliss has confirmed Archer is very much in england’s World Cup sights, the pressure is on england’s supporting seamers so this was an important game for Tom Curran, david Willey and even Liam Plunkett.
Curran the elder responded impressively by claiming Pooran as one of his four victims and being entrusted with the final over but Willey was disappointing, seeing rashid drop a simple boundary catch to reprieve shai Hope and then disappearing for 20 in his two overs.
Plunkett, meanwhile, went at 11 an over and the suspicion remains he is starting to run out of steam at the very worst time. But the pick of the attack was again Adil rashid, who bowled 13 dot balls in his four excellent overs.
denly and Billings, seizing their chances filling in for rested stars Jos Buttler and Ben stokes, took england within striking distance after Bairstow’s dismissal with a stand of 50 from 37 balls. Both fell with victory in sight but england held on to take a 1-0 lead with two games in st Kitts remaining.