England annihilate West Indies in opening Twenty20

Graeme Swann demostrated his side's brilliant form in Twenty20 with a ten wicket win against the feeble West Indies.West Indies were to bat first in a good looking batting pitch and England were the side to battle in the first 15 overs when West indies were 97-3 when suddenly there was a dramatic collapse with Bopara's best bowling figures in English international Twenty20 history with figures of 4-10.


The opening partnership of Dwayne Smith and Johnson Charles of 44 in the first 4 overs were given the impression of England's struggle to strangle runs in the Powerplay before Samit Patel got the 2 wickets of the opening batsmen at 62-2. The pitch was getting slow and was deteriorating as time went and the spinners and slow bowlers got to grips with the bowling and the pitch. With Nkruma Bonner feeling the need to put the run rate up to put a decent score, he sparked collapse from 104-4 in 16 overs to 125 all out in 19.4 overs


Alex Hales and Craig Kieswetter had no problems batting in the pitch with Hales getting his first international half-century in front of a near 18,000 capacity crowd. Revendra Bishoo had a few chances during his spell of 0-28 and would be the pick of the bowlers with his low economical rate of 7.00 in his 4 overs. With England getting to their total with 26 balls to spare, the England team shown they still have a pedigree in them to defend their World Twenty20 crown in Sri Lanka next year and to win the mini-series against the incredibly young West Indies side.

Bopara celebrates his record figures of 4-10 against West Indies in the Kia Oval

Alex Hales gets his half-century as he gets to his first international half-century in the Kia Oval

Graeme Swann leading his team well during the First Twenty20 match against West Indies