Windies cruised past England in the one-off T20I at the Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street. What looks like a comprehensive win by 21 runs, actually had plenty of twists and turns. But ultimately, the T20 World Champions lived up to their reputation.
But the victory for the Carlos Brathwaite-led side didn’t come so easily. The Saturday night on the ground was filled with intermittent showers that made the playing conditions pretty difficult. The ground was slippery and there were big threats on the fielding side of succumbing to injuries.
The Windies wicketkeeper Chadwick Walton indeed got hurt while trying to stop a ball. He had to change the direction at the end and his knee got stuck in the surface. The game was halted for a while but fortunately, it wasn’t a serious injury.
The visiting skipper Brathwaite revealed after the match that at one stage, the team had considered walking off the field as his players could have received a career-threatening injury.
“I had a chat with a few of the boys in a huddle while Chadwick was getting treatment and most of them said it was unsafe. I told the umpires the boys had some concerns — it could be a career-threatening injury,” he said.
Gave an ultimatum to the umpires
Brathwaite further mentioned that he had given an ultimatum to the on-field umpires if anything drastic happened, they would abandon the match. “We kind of gave it an ultimatum… we got the outfield roped and we were in agreement that if it continued to be unsafe or if anything dramatic or drastic happened we’d call it quits. But cricket was the winner,” he added.
Sunil Narine and Brathwaite were the chief contributors to the victory as they bagged 2 and 3 wickets respectively. “We knew we had to stick in it. The way we finished the game was really fantastic,” concluded the 29-year-old.
