England vs West Indies, 15th Match, Group C, ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 - Commentary

West Indies with two convincing wins. This will certainly warm their hearts as it came defending at Wankhede against a strong England batting lineup. England meanwhile just scraped over the line against Nepal and now have lost. They still need to do work to qualify for the next phase. On that note we leave it here. In the famous words of my esteemed colleague Nikhil Jadhav, "it's time to bounce", and enjoy what is left of the night. Bye bye for now. Time to escape from Cricbuzz Towers alongside Akshay Maanay and the diligent hard-working scorer Mukesh Gowda. Tata!

Shai Hope | West Indies captain: "Yeah, for sure, but just happy that the guys got over the line. We've been playing some good cricket in patches. Nice to see we've got more of a complete game today. And as you say, two games up, which is where we want to be in the table. (on Chase) Yeah, like I said in the pre-match, he's a versatile player. He's one that you can come and depend on in very good, most situations. With the bat, he can come in and stabilize the innings, and then with the ball, he can come and give you some crucial overs in the middle. It's great to see him there come in and get some crucial wickets there, put the England batters under pressure, and that's exactly what we required today to get ourselves over the line. (was Chase a floater with the bat tonight?) Yeah, in this situation there, we wanted him to just stabilize a bit. We understand we've got a lot of power in the death in our batting. Today was just a slightly different role for him, but it was good to see he can come in and stabilize the innings for us. (on the power of Rutherford) Yeah, for sure. These guys, they've been playing really well the last couple of months. Sherfane has been exceptional, especially the last few series that he's been playing in. Again, it's good to see one of the batters putting their hands up today and going big for the team. The openers still not firing yet, but it's to come for sure. We've got to put our hands up for the next few games. (on there being no dew) Yeah, it's something that happens quite a lot here at Wankhede. I find in the second innings, the ball tends to get very wet. It was a little bit wet, but not as crazy as it normally is here. But it goes to show that we still can defend some runs when we have to bat first. It's good stuff from the spinners today and hopefully we can continue going into the tournament. (on Motie) Yeah, when you get some time off, you've got to make sure you're trying to find ways to improve and elevate your game. He's one of the class bowlers that we've had for some time now. He's just shown his class once again on the world stage. He's brought something else to his game and it's benefiting us a lot here in the middle overs. It's great to see that he's continuing to progress and continue doing what he's doing best for West Indies."

Harry Brook | England captain: "Yeah, a little bit disappointing. Obviously, it's never nice to lose a game, but West Indies played outstandingly. Everybody knows how much power they've got. If you're slightly off your line or length, then they manage to hit it for six. (on the score by West Indies) Yeah, we probably thought that it was chaseable for sure. It probably didn't dew up as much as we were expecting. It didn't skid onto the bat as much as we were expecting. And yeah, we thought we'd had a chance, definitely. (on Rashid) Yeah, that's the Adil everybody knows and loves. He was awesome. He really lobbed it up there and he gave them a chance to try and hit it for six. But with his skill and his nous, he managed to keep his figures down. And he got a couple of crucial wickets in there as well. (on Jacks' overs) No, it was just the way I played it that. I don't have any regrets in that. I think that Jacksey is an amazing bowler. He just, like I said, we just didn't quite execute as well as we usually can. (top-order not firing, any explanation?) No explanation. It's such a fickle game, isn't it? T20 cricket. It can go one or the other way. And Salty had an amazing start today. And whenever he gets going, it's going to be awesome to watch. He's such a brutal player. And then everybody knows what Jos is like. As soon as he gets going, it's going to be madness. (disappointed with how you played spin?) Not disappointed, like I said a minute ago, we thought it was gonna dew up a little bit and the spinners would slide on a little bit more. Unfortunately, that didn't happen tonight. And yeah, we'll go back and have a reflection on it and go again in a few days. (still confident you can progress?) Yeah, definitely. You have to be confident in this game. Yeah, we obviously, thank God we won against Nepal the other night, otherwise we'd be in a tricky situation. But we obviously play Scotland and Italy next, and yeah, we've just got to go back, do our homework on them and go back to the basics and see how we go."

Sherfane Rutherford | Player of the Match: "First of all, I want to thank God for this opportunity, you know, playing in the biggest stage. But my finger is good, hopefully will be better for the next game. (on the challenges England posed with the ball) I think one of the biggest challenge was Adil Rashid. In our meeting, we know that he is going to be the toughest bowler for us. So what was important for me, is just to try and keep him out of game, try and score, just keep rotating the strike, and build a partnership, and just back ourselves to make up in the end. (on him being confident ahead of the game) Yeah, definitely. For me, I’ve been putting in a lot of work coming into the World Cup. For me, once I trust my process and read the situation, I think once I’m in, I can always score in the end. So it was just important for me to just have a clear mind and just play with more intent. (confident with the score?) For me, I think we were like 10 runs behind. With England batting, we know they are very powerful. But I think the guys stood up well tonight and bowled well, so well done to them. This win mean a lot for us. (Guyanese helping win games) Yeah, it’s good for our country. Our country has been coming into the spotlight, but cricket is a team sport. Moving forward, hopefully other guys can put their hands up and, as a collective unit, we can continue to get better. (two from two, a lot of confidence in the team) Yeah, definitely. In this big stage, you want to make sure that you've that momentum. It was very important for us to keep this momentum. Moving forward, it's just about getting better, try and add 10 percent to our game, and hopefully we can keep going better."

England vs FM teams in T20 WC after crowned champions in 2022
Lost vs Aus
Won vs WI
Lost vs SA
Lost vs Ind
Lost vs WI *

22:38 Local Time, 17:08 GMT, 22:38 IST: "Deserved winners, West Indies" is the comment from Nasser Hussain on air. He is spot-on. The fielding and bowling from West Indies was top-notch today. Especially their spinners who were key in them winning this game. Motie, Hosein and Chase bowled beautifully and used the slight grip on offer to take 6 wickets among themselves. Earlier Salt began so well with a 24-run second over but Shepherd came on in the powerplay and got him. Another failure for Banton at 4 and West Indies kept chipping away. Sam Curran was the last hope for England but no-one gave him company as West Indies also nailed the yorkers with Shamar and Holder outstanding. The catching from West Indies was so good as was their ground fielding. It's never easy to defend scores at the Wankhede in a night game with dew coming on to aid the batters. So this makes West Indies' win all the more special. Stay tuned for the post-match stuff...

Shamar Joseph to Adil Rashid, THATS OUT!! Caught!!

Chase thinks he has caught it. West Indies are celebrating. It will go upstairs. Looks a clean catch. Let's see.

Adil Rashid has a free-hit here. But this is the last wicket so he has to be careful.

Shamar Joseph to Sam Curran, THATS OUT!! Run Out!!

Looks like Liam Dawson is out run-out. It's sent upstairs. Dawson is already walking off. OUT.

This is West Indies' game to lose from here. They have been absolutely brilliant so far. Can they finish it off? Sam Curran did it with the ball for his team in the last game, can he do it with the bat? Not easy against Shamar who has nailed the yorker mostly.