Ravi Bopara took 4-10 as England bowled the West Indies out for 125 in the first Twenty20 international at the Oval on Friday. Bopara’s analysis was the best achieved by an England bowler in any T20 international beating the previous mark of 4-22 set by both Paul Collingwood and Jade Dernbach.
The West Indies got off to a flying start but the introduction of the slower bowlers — Samit Patel (2-23), captain Graeme Swann (1-30) and Bopara — stalled the run rate and a rash of wickets saw the tourists collapse from 97-2 to a below par total. West Indies raced past 50 in 35 balls with Dwayne Smith helping himself to 20 off one over from Tim Bresnan before the spinners arrived.
With one over of the batting powerplay left Swann, standing in for Stuart Broad as captain, opted to give Patel a bowl, rather than having an over himself, and was rewarded with the wicket of Smith who was bowled, for 33, by a ball that turned past his outside edge and hit off stump. Johnson Charles made 33 and Danza Hyatt 26 but the rest of the West Indies batting failed.
Swann brought himself on to dismiss Marlon Samuels and, sensing that the pitch was more suited to slower bowling, the stand-in captain gave Bopara a chance with his gentle medium pace. The switch halted the West Indians’ progress and they crawled to 72-2 off 12 overs, before Danza Hyatt decided he had enough and hit Swann for two sixes and one four.
