Moeen (63), who was filling in for the
injured Eoin Morgan, powered England to 193-6 on a slowish wicket at the
Kensington Oval after some fine early work from Jason Roy (52) and James Vince
(34).
The left-hander was particularly severe
on Jason Holder (3-44), hitting the seamer for four consecutive sixes in the
18th over as he raced to his fifty in 23 balls.
“We started well at the top and
finished really well. This is exactly what we want – to put the bowlers under
pressure… I went from not being able to hit the ball and then a couple of
shots, you get the momentum and you keep going,” said Moeen.
Brandon King (26) and Kyle Mayers (40)
gave the hosts a fast start but the Windies momentum was halted by Moeen
(2-28), who removed both openers before a wicket apiece for fellow spinners
Adil Rashid (1-28) and Liam Livingstone (1-18) helped England home.
“It was a game of two halves. It
spun in the night but did not do much when we were bowling,” said West
Indies captain Kieron Pollard.
“We let it slip towards the back
end. That’s the nature of T20 cricket, it takes only a couple of balls or hits
to take the game away. They got the extra 20 runs to put the game beyond
us.”
The decider will be played at same venue
on Sunday.
