The hosts can now wrap up the three-match series at the earliest opportunity on Sunday in the second T20I at the County Ground, Bristol.
It’s a venue where West Indies have never played a T20I and where England lost their first three fixtures in this format before beating South Africa by 41 runs in their last game here in late July 2022.
Why England can win
It was a fresh face leading the side at Chester-le-Street but the victory was primarily down to 96 runs from 59 balls from 34-year-old former skipper Jos Buttler and T20I career-best figures of 4/20 from 35-year-old left-arm spinner Liam Dawson who marked his return to international cricket with the Player of the Match award.
Although Buttler fell four runs short of his second T20I century, his knock continued his excellent recent form in T20 cricket which has seen him average 63.40 across 14 innings since the start of the 2025 IPL.
As for Dawson, he has now taken a four-wicket haul in both of his last two T20 games and has gone wicketless in just two of his previous six appearances in this format in Bristol.
Fellow spinner Adil Rashid dismissed Gudakesh Motie on Friday and he has fond memories of his last T20I at the County Ground where he picked up the key wickets of Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller three summers ago.
Confidence will also be high in the home dressing room ahead of Sunday afternoon’s game due to the form of the tourists who have lost nine of their last ten completed T20Is and five of their six completed games across this tour of Ireland and the UK.
Why West Indies can win
The defeat in Durham saw plenty of under-par performances from the West Indies players but Romario Shepherd impressed by dismissing both of England’s openers only three days after helping Royal Challengers Bengaluru to their maiden Indian Premier League win!
Gudakesh Motie will be looking to add wickets to his tight bowling from Friday evening where he was the most economical on his side (5.25rpo) and he has now kept his run-rate below 5.58 across four of the six games since the start of this tour, whilst Akeal Hosein becomes another option after getting his visa issues belatedly sorted.
If West Indies are to take this series to the final match at the Ageas Bowl on Tuesday, then they will need to improve their returns against the England spin trio of Dawson, Adil Rashid and Jacob Bethell who took a combined 7/69 from ten overs.
Spinner Will Jacks and pacer Matthew Potts were not so successful, going at 9.50 and 12.00rpo and Evin Lewis at the top of the order may well look to target the latter again after hitting him for 13 runs from six deliveries on Friday.
Fellow opener Johnson Charles will also be charged with getting the innings off to a flying start and he will arrive in Bristol looking to maintain his record of hitting a six in each of his three previous T20Is in England.
Venue and conditions
After the first three T20Is at the County Ground were won by the teams chasing, the last three internationals in this format at this venue, all in 2022, were won by the team batting first.
Across the six T20Is in Bristol, the average run-rate is 9.08 which dips to 8.87rpo for T20 Blast fixtures from the start of 2024.
Although the forecast is slightly warmer for this game than Friday’s T20I in Durham, the top temperature will still be no higher than 17 degrees in Bristol with humidity levels between 60 and 70%.
Player stats
• Romario Shepherd to Ben Duckett in white ball internationals: 3/28 from 22 balls.
• Harry Brook averages 12 (60/5) in all T20s against the last West Indies bowling attack.
• Against the last West Indies bowling lineup, Jacob Bethell has scored 126 runs from 13 overs for just one dismissal.
• Liam Dawson vs Johnson Charles: 2/13 from 17 balls.
• Liam Dawson vs Roston Chase: 2/10 from nine balls.