West Indies allrounder Andre Russell sizzled in his comeback game for West Indies to give the hosts a 1-0 series lead in the T20I series against England. Russell starred with both ball and bat as West Indies chased down the target set by England easily in the end with 11 balls to spare in Barbados.

After being asked to bat first, England got off to a terrific start by plundering 77 runs in the powerplay. Phil Salt got going with three fours in the very first over. Jos Buttler then picked a boundary each off the next two overs before paddling one fine for a six off Russell in the penultimate over of the powerplay. But it was the final over that hurt West Indies big time. Alzarri Joseph made a nightmarish start as he first conceded a four and a six to Salt before Buttler punished a free-hit for a boundary. And if that wasn’t enough, a slower ball down leg wasn’t collected by Nicholas Pooran as West Indies conceded five wides to eventually make it a 26-run over.

The first ball after the powerplay fetched a wicket as the dangerous Salt departed for a 20-ball 40, giving Russell his first wicket. Joseph continued to leak runs by conceding 17 in his second but that over also saw him get rid of Will Jacks, who had just hammered successive sixes. At the halfway mark, England 112 on the board and were well on their way to going past 200.

The second half of the innings was completely in contrast to the first one. Buttler had slowed down and mistimed a pull to get caught for 39 and Harry Brook failed to fire after getting outfoxed by a slower ball from Jason Holder. And if that wasn’t enough, England also lost Ben Duckett at a crucial juncture, handing over the finishing duties to Sam Curran and Liam Livingstone. The odd boundary did arrive and Livingstone threatened to give England a late push towards 200 after smashing Holder for back-to-back sixes but in a stunning collapse, England went from 165/5 to 171 all out. Russell removed the dangerous Livingstone in his final over and added the wicket of Rehan Ahmed before Joseph made amends with two more wickets to give West Indies complete momentum heading into the innings break.

If England made 13 in the first over to kickstart proceedings, West Indies went one step ahead as Brandon King took on Curran for two sixes and a four which was then followed by a massive six from Kyle Mayers off Will Jacks. While King’s rampage came to a halt after a stunning catch from Duckett, the hosts still made 59 in the first six overs, Mayers and Shai Hope then combined to smash Rehan for three sixes immediately after the PP to take control of the chase.

The chase followed a similar pattern to that of the first innings after the rollicking start. Mayers mistimed one against Adil Rashid to depart for 35 and Rehan made a strong comeback with the wicket of Pooran, Rashid was going through an excellent spell and accounted for the big wicket of Shimron Hetmyer as well which was also incidentally his 100th wicket in this format in his 100th game. Thankfully for the hosts, the rain arrived in the following over causing a break in England’s momentum.

West Indies were six runs ahead via DLS at that stage but play did resume around 40 minutes after the players left the field. Rehan then caused a huge dent post-resumption with a double wicket over that reduced WI to 123/6 but the batting side were still in with a chance with Russell walking out at No.8. Having already impressed with the ball in his first game in two years for WI, Russell saw Rovman Powell ease the pressure with successive sixes before unleashing himself. England just couldn’t stop the flow of boundaries as Russell and Powel caused mayhem before the former finished it off in the penultimate over.

Brief scores:
England171 in 19.3 overs (Philip Salt 40, Jos Buttler 39, Liam Livingstone 27; Akeel Hossain 1-32, Jason Holder 1-43, Andre Russell 3/19, Alzarri Joseph 3-54, Romairo Sheppard 2-22) lost to  West Indies172/6 in 18.1 overs (Brandon King 22, Shai Hope 36, Kyle Mayers 35, Rovman Powell 31*, Andre Russel 29* ; Chris Woakes 1-15, Rehan Ahmed 3/39, Adil Rashid 2-25) by 4 wickets