Road Safety World Series 2021: West Indies hammer England by 5 wickets to set-up semi-final with India

Raipur, March 16: In what could be termed as the most exciting match of the Road Safety World Series T20 2020-21, West Indies Legends registered a win by five wickets in a match going down the wire against England Legends at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday (March 16).

Chasing 187 runs to win, half-centuries from Dwayne Smith and Narsingh Deonarine saw West Indies defeat Kevin Pietersen's men and were through to the knockout stage of the tournament.

However, the Windies got a scare when they needed 1 to win in two balls. Lara stepped out to hit off-spinner James Tredwell but missed the ball and got stumped. With 1 required on the last ball, Tino Best smartly pushed the ball on the on for a quick single that took Windies home.

This win helped West Indies Legends finish fourth in the points table, edging out England on better Net Run Rate and entered the semis. They will meet league leaders India Legends in the last four stage game on Wednesday (March 17) evening.

Earlier, Phil Mustard and Owais Shah slammed half-centuries to see England Legends post a challenging total of 186 for three in 20 overs against West Indies.

Opener Mustard got 57 runs off 41 balls with three sixes and five boundaries while the No.4 batsman Shah hit an unbeaten 30-ball 53 which included three hits over the ropes and five through the ground. Captain Pietersen chipped in with a crucial 38 and Jim Troughton got an important 22.

Put in to bat first by West Indies, the English side was there with a mission. And they showed it in their batting with an aggressive approach in Powerplay. Mustard and Pietersen toyed with the Windies attack on a good batting wicket.

Pietersen executed reverse sweeps convincingly against the spinners bowling with the new ball and stepped out when it needed. The opening half-century partnership of Mustard and Pietersen build a strong foundation for England to put up a good score.

As things were going good, Pietersen edged medium-pacer Dwayne Smith to wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs as the scoreboard read 81 on the board. A while later Smith dismissed Mustard who got his first half-century of the crease. Later, in the end, Shah played some big shots to get his half-century and eventually take past England to 186 for 3 in 20 overs.

Brief scores: England Legends 186/3 in 20 overs (Phil Mustard 57, Owais Shah 53*, Kevin Pietersen 38, Jim Troughton 22; Dwayne Smith 2/31) lost to West Indies Legends 187/5 in 20 overs (Dwayne Smith 58, Narsing Deonarine 53*; Kirk Edwards 34; Chris Tremlett 2/37, James Tredwell 2/35) by 5 wickets.