Ali admits West Indies batting depth ‘scary’ after England win

Moeen Ali admitted the batting depth of the West Indies is“scary” after England with stood a late blitz from Roma rio Shepherd and Ake al Hose into win the second Twenty20 by just one run.

England looked to be cruising to a series-level ling victory when their opponents crumbled from 47-2 to 65-7 in pursuit of 172, with Moeen taking format-best figures of three for 24 at Barbados’ Kensington Oval. But some bruising blows from Shepherd kept a flickering hope alive and even though that was extinguished midway through the final over, Hosein closed the show with three successive sixes off Saqib Mahmood.

Shepherd and Hose in, who came in at seven and 10 respectively, each clubbed 44 not out as the Windies made the final result so much closer than it arguably should have been.

“Obviously, the game was done with three balls to go, but with Shepherd still in and the way it went down, it never quite felt like we were over the line till the last ball,” Moeen said.

“Even though they were six or seven down for not many runs, they were never quite out of the game, they’re such a dangerous team. They’ ve got so much talent, so much power.

“The fact they bat all the way down to number 10 makes them extremely dangerous. For them to lose by one run, it’s actually quite scary, their batting line-up is very scary.

“We’re glad to get the win but we could do a lot of things better. It is a lesson for the guys. We know we haven’t even played that well there and we still won the game.”

Jason Roy had earlier topscored for England, who lost the series opener 24 hours earlier by nine wickets when they were bowled out for 103, with 45 from 31 balls as the tourists posted 171-8 after batting first again.

Reece Topley marked his first T20 international in six years with an early wicket and a run out and then–after spin twins Moeen and Adil Rashid had put the squeeze on in the middle overs – the left-arm seamer held his nerve in the penultimate over, yielding just eight runs to leave the Windies needing 30 from the last six balls.

Mahmood’s first delivery was called a wide while Hosein was left unimpressed when the second one was not and took any frustration out on England’s fast bowler with two fours and three sixes in a final over that yielded 28 runs.