England had a 0-5 record in T20Is against West Indies in the T20 World Cup before today and the ghosts of a proper hiding on a teary-eyed night at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata five years back.
That night, probably also made today's England, a team so fearless that they have rewritten the T20 script, broken conventional cricketing knowledge and brought their own template to a format that most teams were still coming to terms with.
That England was on full display, in its unbridled avatar, in Dubai on Saturday night. Why else would they throw Moeen Ali, their fifth bowling option the new ball against Evin Lewis and Lendl Simmons? The match ups are well documented, but on a slow wicket where powerplay runs are crucial, containing runs become priority. Not for England, though, as they entrusted Moeen to take down the left-handers at the top. He took down one right-hander and the power-hitting left-hander after Chris Woakes did the early damage. The demolition job took just over one hour.
Each of England's five bowlers took a wicket in their first over of the night, a stat that also underlines how each of them, as though on cue from their skipper, hit the ground running. If the others were more kind, Adil Rashid was ruthless, bundling out the lower order in a stellar spell of 2.2-0-2-4.
Andre Russell's forlorn look back at his stumps as the Rashid googly crash-landed into his stumps tells a lot about West Indies' night. They were outplayed entirely by the very same team they had humbled in unforgettable fashion in the finals of this very tournament five years back.
If the reality that West Indies are indeed past their prime hadn't hit yet, it smashed hard after the thumping that England handed out to them. Chris Gayle is 42, Kieron Pollard is 34, Andre Russell is 33, but is far from the beast he used to be a year or so back and Lendl Simmons is 36. While the young crop are promising, they haven't yet taken ownership of the team yet.
England, on the other hand, faced scrutiny over the form of their captain Eoin Morgan in the lead up to the game, and while that might still remain, there's no questioning his tactical acumen. Morgan knows his troops and it shows in the way he plays his cards in a calculated fashion.
The relentless bowling effort was succeeded by what you'd expect from England with the bat: go all out in attack. They bat deep and can afford to commit 'harakiri'. While it might seem odd to someone stuck in the mid-90s still, the vogue in T20 batting is go big or go home and England are the embodiment of this philosophy.
That showed as they tried to blast their way through early on before just maneuvering the ball around the settle for a comfortable win. That England lost four wickets in this run chase will definitely he a discussion point, but England know their T20 cricket and in accepting attack as the best form of defence, they have given in to these days of inconsistent returns.
Without delving too much into the wickets column, it's hard to look past the merciless manner in which England took an early lead in the group. With Group 1 having some strong contenders, this win, against arguably the next best team in the group, will almost seal England's place in the semi-finals. To say that this early in the tournament and not feel weird, is testimony to how good England are.
Final score
West Indies 55/10 (Gayle 13, Rashid 4/2, Mills 2/17, Moeen 2/17)
England 56/4 (Buttler 24*, Hosein 2/24)
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