West Indies v England: fourth men’s T20 cricket international – live | West Indies cricket team

11th over: England 110-2 ( Buttler 20, Bethell 4) Motie returns, and actually manages to maintain composed control over England. Just five from the over as the horns blare at the ground.

10th over: England 105-2 ( Buttler 18, Bethell 2) Bethell the next man in – one of the coming men and getting rave reviews for his fielding as well as his other skills.

From nowhere, Salt is suddenly hauling his boots of the field after getting out to an unlikely long-hop which he snitches round to the keeper. A fabulous 55 off just 35 balls – five fours, four sixes. And they take DRINKS.

9th over: England 101-1 (Salt 55, Buttler 16) Hosein again, with his Mr Whippy hair. Nearly gets his man as Salt flays and McCoy at long off dives with purpose, but not quite with the ball. Time for a seasoning of Buttler: he leans back deeply and drives Hosein up and over extra cover for four, and next ball punches him brutally over long-on for six. West Indies looking a bit forlorn here.

8th over: England 88-1 (Salt 54, Buttler 4 ) Choo-choo! All aboard the Phil Salt train – he celebrates yet another fifty with an unshowy waft of the bat. Powell the man to suffer this over as Salt kisses him straight for four, and then shimmies him through backward point for four more.

7th over: England 77-1 (Salt 45, Buttler 2 ) Carnage! Time for Motie to get the treatment. The ball belted way over long on and long off for two huge sixes – Salt on the money, Buttler content to hand him the glory.

I’ve just noticed that my email address is wrong on the link above. Will change but I’m on [email protected] if you have something to say.

6th over: England 63-1 (Salt 32, Buttler 1 ) Hosein is switched back into action, and things go more calmly than the first over until the penultimat ball – which Salt griddle-pans for six over long off.

5th over: England 54-1 (Salt 24) Joseph returns, after an impressive first over, but initally even he can’t slow the train. Jacks immediately lofts another six, 89 metres, bouncing off a plastic seat and nuzzling to a halt amongst the crowd. A no ball, brings a free hit… and no runs. Rovman Powell, say the commentators, is experimenting with mixing it up in the power play – it hasn’t worked hugely well so far. But I speak too soon – Jacks goes at Joseph once too many times and is beaten for pace and aggression and top-edges – Pooran runs gently round to collect. Fifty still elusive for Jacks.

4th over: England 43-0 (Salt 23, Jacks 16) McCoy has switched ends, but still finds himself dispatched. Jacks eyes up a wide one and lofts him over extra-cover like a man who knows he is going to get extra gravy. England continue to gather runs with ease.

3rd over: England 33-0 (Salt 21, Jacks 8) McCoy is removed for now and replaced by Hosein – but Salt is in hungry mood and unfortunately Hosein isn’t yet on point. His second ball is a warm and welcoming pie which Salt sends through the covers for four, the next is dragged down and Salt tucks in with six. Jacks finishes the over by dancing down and pinging another six – to make it 18 from the over.

2nd over: England 15-0 (Salt 10, Jacks 1) The poker-faced Joseph at the other end, aiming very straight and leaking just three runs – one of them from a terrible bit of lackadaisical fielding. Not huge numbers of spectators in yet on a perfect November afternoon.

1st over: England 12-0 (Salt 8, Jacks 0) Obed McCoy, built like a mighty mountain, with the first over. Salt rockets his second ball through midwicket for four. An early fielding mishap as Rutherford, in a moment of madness, flings a dead ball above the wicket-keeper and it rolls merrily over the rope for four overthrows. Another delivery gets blasted straight back into the blue, blue, St Lucian sky for four more. In betweeen all that, McCoy beats Salt twice.

The players are out – let’s see what West Indies can do in the power play.

We get up close and personal with the St Lucia pitch alongside Carlos Brathwaite. Looks pretty tasty. Dry, dry, dry with the wind blowing across the ground.

If you spot Jos Buttler, Jamie Overton and Marcus Trescothick in black armbands and wonder why, it is in memory of long-time Somerset supporter and fundraiser Mary Elworthy, who died yesterday aged 90. RIP Mary.

West Indies: Shai Hope, Evin Lewis, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Rovman Powell (c), Shimron Hetmyer, Sherfane Rutherford, Roston Chase, Gudakesh Motie, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Obed McCoy.

Rutherford and McCoy replace Shepherd and Hinds.

England XI: Phil Salt (wk), Will Jacks, Jos Buttler (c), Jacob Bethell, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Jamie Overton, Dan Mousley, Rehan Ahmed, Saqib Mahamood, John Turner.

Turner for Archer.

If Buttler says it will be a different challenge today – let’s see if they can win batting first. Turner replaces Jofra Archer to make his T20 debut.

At last! Powell grins. “We know how important it is to bowl and get that good start. From a personal standpoint players have to stand up and be counted, the players are ready and upbeat for the challenge today. I think the guys can’t keep losing wickets in clusters, we need to show good technical skills, this provides and opportunity for guys to show that.”

Jason Roy is the new face in the TNT studio and, in his cuddly blue jumper, picks out Liam Livingstone as his man of the series. Alastair Cook is his foil ,with a box-fresh white T-shirt under his quarter zip.

West Indies have one obvious failure to fix from the last match, where they crucially dropped Liam Livingstone three times. As Rovman Powell put it bluntly afterwards: “Guys have to take more catches.”

England, footloose and fancy free ( even if they didn’t exactly cruise past West Indies’ 145) may take the opportunity to make a few team tweaks.

And an interview with media-shy outgoing Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley:

While we wait, this was the Guardian’s editorial eye on the future of cricket:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/15/the-guardian-view-on-testing-times-crickets-traditions-are-being-clean-bowled-by-cash

Hello! While pert geraniums wither in the frost back home, England have been having a fine old time in the Caribbean.

ODI woes forgotten, England have already won the five-match T20 series, last weekend’s two victories topped off by a three-wicket victory yesterday in St Lucia. It is England’s first series win away from home since October 2022, and only their second series victory in the last six series played.

Today they return to the same pitch they played on yesterday, with the weather dreamy hot and the winds strong. The toss is due in about 20 minutes.