Saturday, 2 April 2016

Captain Morgan Faces Gayle Force

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England and West Indies will attempt to make history when they contest the World Twenty20 final at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday.


No team has won the competition more than once since its inception in 2007.

India, Pakistan, England, West Indies and Sri Lanka have all won the title.

England lost to the Windies in their first group match but have since won four in a row, while West Indies lost to Afghanistan having qualified for the semi-finals, where they beat India.

England's Eoin Morgan: "We know it's not going to be a normal game, even in the semi-final, there was quite a lot of hype around the expectation of playing in a final.

"I want all of our players to embrace it. Everything's going to feel a little bit rushed to start with. It's important that we're in a really good frame of mind to slow things down when needed and more importantly execute our skills.

"Given the strides we have made in the last 12 months in white-ball cricket, I think this would be a great reward for the mindset we've shown, the dedication and the hard work we've put in."

West Indies skipper Darren Sammy: "England is a team we respect. We know the calibre of players they have in the dressing room, they have a lot of match-winners as well.

"But we tend to focus on what we can on the cricket field and as a group we believe that once we do what we know we can do on the cricket field it is going to be difficult to defeat us.

"Since that loss to us England have moved in leaps and bounds, that's why they are in the final. I always want cricket to be the winner and hope the fans are entertained and it will be a very exciting match, but at the end I just want West Indies to be victorious."

The first official T20 matches comprising 20 six-ball overs per side took place in the 2003 English county cricket season and the first T20 international was played between New Zealand and Australia in Auckland in February 2005.

The inaugural World T20 was played in 2007 and won by India but after six tournaments in the first nine years, there will be a four-year gap before the next one in Australia in 2020.

This will be the teams' 14th meeting in T20 cricket. West Indies have won nine, including all four at the World T20. No team has beaten England more in T20 history than those nine wins by the West Indies

Chris Gayle has scored more T20 runs against England than any other player (345)

England captain Eoin Morgan has been out first ball in two of his last three innings

West Indies captain Darren Sammy has scored just six runs in two innings and bowled only once in the tournament

Four of David Willey's wickets in this event have been openers, the most of any bowler

50% of balls bowled by Ben Stokes in overs 16-20 have been dots, more than anyone else in the event to have bowled more than three overs in that period

Four of the five T20 finals have been won by the side winning the toss

Two of those finals have won by the side batting first, three by chasing teams, including England in 2010

Eden Gardens has been staging international cricket since 1934 and hosted its first T20 international in 2011.

The highest score made there in a T20 was the 201-5 Pakistan posted against Bangladesh in this event.

Bangladesh hold the unwanted lowest-score record, with their 70 against New Zealand last month.

Neither finalist has yet played at the ground in this tournament, England playing all their games to date in Mumbai and Delhi, West Indies playing at Mumbai, Bangalore and Nagpur.

Temperatures are expected to be around 31 celsius for the final, which is a night game, beginning at 19:00 local time, with a capacity crowd of 66,000 expected.

Routes to the final:

ENGLAND
lost to West Indies by six wickets, Mumbai: Eng 182-6; WI 183-4 (18.1 overs)
beat South Africa by two wickets, Mumbai: SA 229-4; Eng 230-8 (19.4 overs)
beat Afghanistan by 15 runs, Delhi: Eng 142-7; Afg 127-9 (20 overs)
beat Sri Lanka by 10 runs, Delhi: Eng 171-4; SL 161-8 (20 overs)

Semi-final:
Beat New Zealand by seven wickets, Delhi: NZ 153-8; Eng 159-3 (17.1 overs)

WEST INDIES
beat England by six wickets, Mumbai
beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets, Bangalore: SL 122-9; WI 127-3 (18.2 overs)
beat South Africa by three wickets, Nagpur: SA 122-8; WI 123-7 (19.4 overs)
lost to Afghanistan by six runs, Nagpur: Afg 123-7; WI 117-8 (20 overs)

Semi-final:
beat India by six wickets, Mumbai: Ind 192-2; WI 196-3 (19.4 overs)

Line-ups:

England (probable): A Hales, J Roy, J Root, E Morgan (capt), J Buttler (wkt), B Stokes, M Ali, C Jordan, D Willey, A Rashid, L Plunkett.

West Indies (probable): J Charles, C Gayle, M Samuels, L Simmons, A Russell, D Bravo, D Ramdin (wkt), D Sammy (capt), C Brathwaite, S Badree, S Benn.

Umpires: 
R Tucker (Aus), K Dharmasena (SL).
Third umpire: M Erasmus (SA)
Match referee: R Madugalle (Ind).

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