Phil Salt produced another epic century hours after his Indian Premier League snub as England racked up their highest-ever T20 score to send their series against the West Indies to a decider.
Overlooked at Tuesday’s IPL auction in Dubai and three days on from his match-winning 109 not out in Grenada, Salt’s form transferred to Trinidad as he amassed a buccaneering 119 off just 57 balls.
The innings underpinned England’s gargantuan 267 for three, which was 26 more than their previous T20 best against New Zealand in Napier in November 2019, and proved enough to secure a thumping 75-run win.
Having been set a daunting target, which if achieved would have been a world record chase, the Windies went out all guns blazing but were all out for 192 in 15.3 overs.
Reece Topley finished with three for 37, Sam Curran and Rehan Ahmed each took a couple of wickets while there was one each for Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid.
Salt set a new benchmark for the highest T20 score by an Englishman while he is the first male from his country with two three-figure scores in the format.
From the moment he danced down the track to his third ball and dispatched a sweetly-timed drive off T20 debutant Matthew Forde for the first of his 10 sixes, Salt barely looked back.
England captain Jos Buttler registered his second successive half-century, thumping three sixes before holing out going for a fourth after contributing 55 to an opening stand worth 117 in 9.5 overs.
The wicket did not bring a halt to the onslaught as the Windies may have hoped as the first three balls of the next over from Sherfane Rutherford were hit over the leg-side rope by a free-flowing Salt.
Will Jacks chipped in 24 off eight balls as Salt inched towards a 48-ball ton.
He and Livingstone quickly got back to piling on runs in a boundary-laden 73-run union off 29 deliveries.
Livingstone briefly threatened six sixes in an over after the wayward Forde, who conceded 54 in 18 deliveries, saw his first three balls travel the distance before he finally got one in the blockhole.
England equalled their record for the most sixes in a T20 with 20 before Salt departed in the penultimate over.
He got himself in a tangle against Andre Russell and saw the ball sail between his legs before castling him, although Livingstone finished on 54 not out off 21 balls after taking three fours off Jason Holder.
Both Holder and Gudakesh Motie conceded 55 while Akeal Hosein was the only member of the Windies side who bowled more than one over and kept their economy rate under 10.
The Windies have enviable firepower of their own but Moeen gave England the best possible start in the second innings.
His first ball took Brandon King’s top edge and looped to Reece Topley, who took a fine leaping catch at short third.
Boundaries were not hard to come by in the chase as the Windies collected 14 sixes of their own and all of England’s bowlers came in for punishment, but they kept making breakthroughs in the batting.
Pooran (39) and Rutherford (36) threatened briefly while Russell clattered 51 off 25 balls before he was last batter out, attempting to take down Topley but caught by Brook running in from long-off.
Record-breaking Root edges England closer to Sri Lanka victory
Joe Root hit a record-breaking century as England edged closer to sealing their series victory over Sri Lanka at Lord's.
Root, who equalled Alastair Cook's record during the first innings of the second Test, made 103 from 111 balls for his 34th Test ton.
England resumed on 25-1 at the start of day three, with Root leading the way for the hosts and the crowd rose as one when a sweeping four completed his landmark century.
He helped his nation set their opponents a target of 483 after they were 251 all out.
As the light faded over Lord's, so too did Sri Lanka's momentum in their record-attempting chase, with Gus Atkinson and Olly Stone claiming Nishan Madushka and Pathum Nissanka respectively.
Play was eventually halted due to bad light, and called off to be resumed on Sunday with the tourists at 53-2 with Dimuth Karunaratne (23) and Prabath Jayasuriya (three) at the crease.
Data Debrief: Root revels on record-breaking day
Day three of the second Test belonged to Root, whose century was also his quickest in Test cricket.
Adding to his 143 in England's first innings, he registered two tons in a match for the first time, while becoming only the fourth player to achieve that feat in a Test at Lord's.
Root also joins Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar in scoring 5,000 Test runs in two different decades, while closing the gap on Cook's all-time England tally (12,472) to just 95.
If that was not enough for him, he also took the catches for both of Sri Lanka's wickets, making him the first England player to reach 200 in Test cricket.
Last Hurrah: Dwayne Bravo to call time on CPL career after this year's edition
Former West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo says this year’s edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) will be his last hurrah as he announced his retirement from the tournament on Saturday.
Bravo, who represents the Trinbago Knight Riders, made the revelation on his Instagram account hours ahead of the franchise’s opening contest against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in Basseterre, scheduled for 7:00pm.
“It's been a great journey, and I'm looking forward to playing my final professional tournament in front of my Caribbean people," Bravo said in his post.
“TKR is the place where everything started for me and will end with my team,” he added.
The 40-year-old’s post all but indicates the end of a decorated professional career, as he retired from international cricket in 2021 after the T20 World Cup and also announced his retirement from the Indian Premier League (IPL) a year later after being part of four title-winning Chennai Super Kings campaigns.
Bravo, known for his flair and skillful batting and bowling, is currently the CPL’s highest wicket-taker with 128 scalps in 103 games at an average of 22.40 and economy rate of 8.69.
In fact, Bravo is the leading wicket-taker in all T20s, with 630 scalps in 578 matches. He has also scored 6,970 runs with the bat.
No doubt the electrifying Trinidad and Tobago stalwart will go down as one of T20's early legends, having played seven World Cups in the format, winning two titles, as well as over 15 franchise league titles. He is the first bowler to get to 500 T20 wickets.
CWI targets domestic T20 competition in 2025 to identify Caribbean representative(s) for 2028 Olympic Games
Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Dr. Kishore Shallow says plans are already afoot to host a domestic T20 competition next year to determine the Caribbean representative(s) for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Shallow, once again welcoming cricket’s return to the Olympic Games, pointed out that his administration is already in dialogue with the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) hierarchy to stage the domestic competition in 2025.
Cricket, which last featured at an Olympic Games in 1900, was always set for a long-awaited return to the global multi-sport showpiece, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last year confirmed it and four other sports—baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse, and squash—for the LA Games.
“To add cricket to the agenda in the next Olympics is certainly going to be something tremendous, as we did in the Commonwealth Games a couple years ago when we had one of our teams representing the females. We at the time chose our original women’s tournament, and the winner at the time was Barbados, so they represented the region,” Shallow said.
“We anticipate something similar will be done unless they tell us all the teams can come and participate, which would be ideal, but it is unlikely for that to happen,” he added.
Shallow also explained that the CPL champions cannot represent the region at the Olympic Games given that the tournament is franchise-based and involves players from other parts of the world.
As such, he revealed that he has engaged CARICOM leaders regarding plans for a domestic T20 competition from which the winner or top finishers would secure the coveted Olympic Games spot(s).
“We have been in discussion with CPL for them to fund a domestic T20 tournament starting next year. I think Miles Bascombe and his team have already scheduled a window for that next year in 2025. Once we are able to have that tournament, then we can use that to determine which team or teams will participate in the Olympics on behalf of CWI,” Shallow shared.
“We can’t use the CPL as it is now because it’s franchises. But in the domestic tournament that we’re having, which will still have a commercial model to it but not to the extent of CPL, but that will more than likely be territories instead of franchises, so we will be able to identify teams,” he noted.
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