West Indies knock England out of ICC World Twenty20

England are out of the ICC World Twenty20 after losing to West Indies by five wickets in a game shortened by rain.

England hit 161/6 off their 20 overs, with Ravi Bopara top-scoring with 55 from 47 balls.

But after an hour had been lost to rain, West Indies were set a target revised by Duckworth-Lewis to just 80 from nine overs.

Though England took regular wickets and had the Windies at 45/5, Shiv Chanderpaul (17*) and Ronnie Sarwan (19*), surely the most experienced sixth-wicket partnership going, saw them home.

England, omitting Dimi Mascarenhas and again refusing to include Graham Napier, again laid a solid foundation but lacked any firepower in the final overs of their innings. Remarkably, they did not hit a boundary between the 11th and the 20th overs. Stuart Broad came in at No 8 for the last two balls of the innings and hit a four and a six, but it was much too little much too late.

At the top Luke Wright (6) fell again top edging a hook from a ball that got large on him. Today, it came from Kieron Pollard.

KP hit 31, before top-edging a sweep from medium pacer Simmons. After that Shah (18), Collingwood (11) and Foster (13) all managed to score at a run a ball but there was no sense of the innings taking flight, despite a massive hooked six from Shah.

In fact, it was after that Shah six in the 11th over – he fell in the next over to a brilliant catch from Fletcher on the square leg rope – that the boundary drought began, lasting until the penultimate ball of the innings.

The first rain break, midway through the 17th over, came at a bad time for England, as they were already struggling to rebuild momentum after the dismissal of Bopara. England failed to hit a single boundary between the 11th and 20th overs and, though the Duckworth-Lewis calculations appeared to favour the chasing side, it was this lack of adventure that ultimately cost them the game.

Defending the meagre, rain-adjusted total, England bowled well and fielded tenaciously. Ryan Sidebottom yorked Chris Gayle in the second over and James Foster pulled off another brilliant stumping, of Bravo off Swann, leaving the West Indies 45/5.

With Windies needing 30 off 18 balls, a James Anderson over went for 13, thanks to some clever batting from Sarwan that brought him two successive fours – the first saw him sweeping a ball from wide of off-stump for four .

After that, the Windies were in the box seat, and soon they were though to the semi-finals. Ryan Sidebottom came to the last over trying to defend three runs; England spent an age shuffling their fielders around but it was all too late; Sarwan smashed him for a four over extra cover and England were out.

England’s Twenty20 squad: some pointers

Note: England squad has now been posted here

It’s never been entirely clear to me why cricket and football teams have to announce these big preliminary squads ages before a tournament. They’re allowed to bring new people in after they’ve done it, after all.

I guess it’s just another pre-publicity device, designed to put the event in the minds of the media and forcing them to write about it.

I seem to have fallen for it.

Anyway, as you must know, England are now the lowest-ranked Twenty20 team in the world – or would be, if the ICC kept rankings. They don’t, but I’ve got a calculator and six wins in 15 starts puts England below even the West Indies. They’ve used 42 players in those games, including eight wicket-keepers.

Brilliant.

Andy Flower recently hinted that England might need to bring in some specialists for the Twenty20. Common sense might suggest that, given the lack of a head coach, tomorrow’s squad will leave plenty of room for fudging, and will contain a few new faces, some T20 specialists, some youngsters untried at international level – and plenty of old lags too. 

The core players who have let everyone down for the last two or three years; the young T20 specialists; the old experts. England don’t need to decide which way to jump quite yet, so I expect their party of 30 to leave their options open, with representatives of all three groups..

Muggins here is going to name his own 30, based on my own outlandish ideas and my second-guessing of the selectors and their more conservative instincts. If I name all 30 correctly, feel free to send money.

The XI that got skittled for 121 v the Windies in March were: Bopara, Davies, KP, Shah, Collingwood, Strauss, Mascarenhas, Batty, Broad, Khan, Anderson.

In addition, Andrew Flintoff, Matt Prior and Steve Harmison played in the series-clinching ODI on Friday. First-choice spinner Graeme Swann was missing only through injury.

Adil Rashid has sat on the bench throughout the ODI series, but will surely stay in the squad. And there’s really no reason to leave out Ryan Sidebottom, despite his apparent decline in form and fitness since he started to come under the charge of England’s coaching team.

I haven’t seen too much of Amjad Khan – but what I have seen – maybe unfairly – does not make me feel he is a must, by any stretch.

Flintoff’s hat-trick at the death in the series-clinching ODI on Friday once again left no doubt that he should be the first man on the England team-sheet, whatever form of the game you’re talking about.

For Twenty20, Dimi Mascarenhas must be the second.

Looking at the XI who lost the last Twenty20, there’s four who might not rank in the country’s top 30 T20 players: Khan, Gareth Batty, Andrew Strauss and James Anderson. (Maybe I’m being unfair on Anderson: in that last ODI, he showed he can bowl yorkers at the death and he is one of the top two fielders in the side – but, despite his new acclaim as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year I still have him down as a bowler who can go for plenty.)

Will England have got their act together already, agreed with Strauss that he needs a rest ahead of the Ashes and got a ready-made replacement skipper in place? I kind of doubt it. So expect Strauss to be in the 30 and Anderson, but maybe not Batty.

New faces? Well, Graham Napier was belatedly given England recognition when he was called up for the Lions in New Zealand last month. As well as his famous clean-hitting, he bowls at 90mph – only two English players took more wickets in last year’s T20 Cup. It’s pretty shameful that he’s not had a look-in until now.

(The Alastair Cook selection ahead of Napier and Mascarenhas for Stanford still strikes me six months later as a resignation issue for all concerned: England selectors knowingly selecting a team that they surely know to be below-strength? And if they didn’t realise that it was below-strength by choosing Cook ahead of Napier, they should be sacked in any case. Anyone disagree?)

England should be considering a roster of young players from the Twenty20 Cup champions Middlesex. Dawid Malan hit a T20 hundred off Flintoff and Dominic Cork’s Lancashire attack last summer – and then top scored when Middlesex played England at Stanford. If those performances haven’t literally put him in the shop window, then… I’ll be very surprised. On paper at least Malan’s leg-spin offers the side another option, which will count in his favour with the selectors.

Steven Finn, Malan’s lanky fast-bowling team-mate likewise bowled well to England at Stanford, suggesting he has a big-match temperament as well as the ability to bowl 85mph yorkers at will – a decent skill when you’re 6ft7. Finn is also an improbably good fielder for such a tall man.

Will Steve Harmison be in the squad? This is almost a call that could decide England’s whole summer. One bowler who showed in last year’s domestic T20 that he can do everything Harmison used to – 90-plus pace, hostility, wicket-taking and the odd bout of complete failure of control – was Saj Mahmood. Harmison himself hasn’t been trusted in a T20 international for nearly three years, but we can still probably expect his inclusion in the 30, possibly to be excised when the final cut comes. 

Since falling out with Duncan Fletcher, Essex keeper James Foster has weirdly not had a look-in at England level. Foster averaged 36, had a strike rate of 140 during Essex’s run to last year’s T20 finals day. Given that Prior might be considered as a specialist batter, it’s possible that Foster will become a third wicket-keeper in the party.

The most successful opening partnership in domestic T20 are Joe Denly and Rob Key. The pair did not set the county championship alight last year nor the Lions’ tour of New Zealand yet it’s hard to see them not being selected for this Twenty20 party. Having led Kent to the Cup in 2007 and the runners-up spot – lost by a whisker – last year, Key is also a potential candidate for the captaincy alongside Dimitri Mascarenhas. 

Jonathan Trott was the top batter on the recent Lions tour and is widely seen as the next-in-line for England in all forms. He had a go in the T20 side back in 2007 and there’s no reason to suppose the selectors won’t see him in the top 30 players now. 

Luke Wright likewise who in his 16 ODIs has shown – admittedly sporadically – that he can do the business with both bat and ball – remember when he was called up to bowl the last over of that ODI in New Zealand, held his nerve and saved the game by only conceding six? Wright also hit a century on the Lions tour.

Yorkshire’s seaming all-rounder Tim Bresnan is another ODI alumni who may return. Picked too soon under Duncan Fletcher, he looked out of his depth in the 2006 ODI thrashing by Sri Lanka but has recovered well for Yorkshire. England need to stock up on those hard-to-get away medium pacers and Bresnan, still only 24, fits the bill.

Middlesex’s Tim Murtagh took more wickets than any other Englishman in last year’s T20. Swinging it at 80mph may not necessarily make Murtagh a candidate for the next Ashes tour – but the notion of seeing the T20 side as a feeder for the Test team is plain foolishness. If we think – as we should – that playing the World T20 in England in early-season should give English-style bowlers an advantage, then let’s pick some English-style bowlers. 

Surrey’s Saffer-born seamer Jade Dernbach, 23, was the leading one-day wicket-taker in the country last year and early-season reports suggest we should expect more of the same this year. He was part of the ECB’s fast bowling development camp in Florida before Christmas and being named as something of a wild card in the England 30 might give him extra incentive in the early season Friends Provident games.

Ahead of both of those will be Kabir Ali. He swings the ball at pace and despite the dark memories of his last spell in an England shirt – 0/72 off six v Sri Lanka at Leeds in 2006 – he gets wickets quicker than anyone in the county game. His strike-rate in his 14 ODIs – a wicket every 33 balls – is similar to Broad’s (32.7) and better than Anderson’s (37.5)

Spinners? Swann and Rashid will be in there – and maybe as many as three others. The three most successful spinners in the domestic game are all veterans. Nayan Doshi (30), Shaun Udal (40) and the recently-retired Ian Salisbury. 

Personally, I see zero merit in looking to ‘blood’ youngsters when you are trying to win a tournament. Pick Udal and let him bowl at the other end to Rashid. 

Will England have forgiven Samit Patel for getting too tubby over the winter? Tricky one. Being axed for being too fat is pretty embarrassing but he certainly offers plenty with bat and ball in T20, so I’d be tempted to pick him for the 30. Then again, I don’t know if he’s spent the time since his demotion in the gym or in the larder. 

There’s nothing to suggest that erstwhile New Botham Ian Blackwell is on the selectors’ radar – but he hit 1000 runs last year and has just signed for Durham, the champions, so it might be an inspired choice to name him in the 30, again to give him that extra incentive.

It’s never been entirely clear why Sussex’s Michael Yardy got the chop from the England ODI squad – his economy rate for his darted-in spinners was among the very best in the world, while playing in a team that was generally getting hammered. And he can offer options as a finisher with the bat, too.

Batsmen Andrew Strauss, Rob Key, Joe Denly, Ravi Bopara, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, Jonathan Trott, Dawid Malan, Graham Napier, Luke Wright

Keepers Matt Prior, Steven Davies, James Foster

All-rounders Andrew Flintoff, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Graeme Swann, Michael Yardy, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan 

Fast bowlers James Anderson, Steve Harmison, Steven Finn, Sajid Mahmood, Ryan Sidebottom, Kabir Ali, Tim Murtagh, Jade Dernbach

Spinners Shaun Udal