Hales Falls For 99 But England Beat West Indies

Hales Falls For 99 But England Beat West Indies

Alex Hales made 99 for England as they beat the West Indies by seven wickets at Trent Bridge

©REUTERS / Action Images

England 173-3 (Hales 99, Bopara 59) beat
West Indies 172-4 (Smith 70) by 7 wickets
Twenty20 International, Trent Bridge
Scorecard

Alex Hales became the first man to be dismissed for 99 in a Twenty20 International but England still celebrated a seven-wicket win over the West Indies at Trent Bridge.

After the West Indies posted 172 for four batting first, Hales and Ravi Bopara (59) put on 159 for the second wicket to turn the game in England's favour.

They had lost Craig Kieswetter for three early on while Hales and Bopara both fell late before Eoin Morgan (2 not out) and Jos Buttler (0 not out) guided the home side to victory with two balls to spare.

Hales, playing at his home ground, passed his previous best score of 62 and made sure his career-best was a match-turning innings, hitting six fours and four sixes, finding the boundary at will before he was bowled at the end of the 19th over by Ravi Rampaul, who also dismissed Kieswetter.

He faced 68 balls and Bopara played his part with 59 in 44 deliveries, including four fours and a six until he was caught by Fidel Edwards off Marlon Samuels trying to win the game with another boundary.

Earlier, Dwayne Smith (70 in 54 balls) and Dwayne Bravo (54 in 36) had underpinned West Indies' score and helped them bounce back from being reduced to 30 for three.

Steven Finn, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann did the early damage to remove Chris Gayle (2), Lendl Simmons (6) and Samuels (4) respectively before Smith, who hit five fours and five sixes, and Bravo, who thumped one four and three sixes, combined to good effect.

They added 77 for the fourth wicket, which fell when Smith was caught by Kieswetter off Finn but Kieron Pollard finished the innings with a flourish by smashing 23 in 13 balls.

The win for England completed a successful set of series against the West Indies, having earlier won both Test and One-Day International series 2-0.

© Cricket World 2012