FIRST BLOOD TO WINDIES

 FIRST BLOOD TO WINDIES
 Reigning World Twenty20 champions West Indies comfortably won the first of their three matches at Kensington Oval in front of a packed house. The 27 runs margin flattered England who were never in the hunt after Marlon Samuels (69no), Dwayne Smith (27) and Chris Gayle (43) blasted the ball to all corners of the ground in their 170-3 total. Ravi Bopara (42) and Tim Bresnhan (47no) were the only English batsmen to get going after Samuel Badree captured three early wickets and effectively killed off the game.   
Match 2 comes off at the same venue on Tuesday and the visitors will have to fight back without their skipper Stuart Broad who has a knee injury. Irishman Eoin Morgan will deputize in his absence, but there will need to be a huge improvement of they are to level the series.
Off the field it was great to see so many English supporters who packed the local bars immediately after the game. Little wonder they regard Barbados as their “Little England.”