Phil Salt joined an exclusive club at Trinidad today, hitting his second consecutive T20I hundred as England posted a mammoth total in the fourth T20I against West Indies.
England carried on from where the left off in the third T20I, in which they chased 223 to win off the penultimate ball, with Salt winning the Player of the Match award for his maiden T20I century. This time, Salt and England went even bigger and faster.
He and Jos Buttler – who made a second consecutive fifty – put on 117 off 59, compared to 115 off 68 in the third T20I. Salt’s century came up off 48 balls, compared to 51 balls. He ended up with 119, compared to 109. And England put up 267-3, their highest T20I total, and the second-highest in any T20I between two Full Members – Afghanistan’s 278-3 against Ireland in 2019 is the highest.
Salt became the second England batter, and the first man, to make two T20I tons. Danni Wyatt has done so for England Women. He also became the second batter from a Full Member nation to hit hundreds in consecutive T20I innings, with South Africa’s Rilee Rossouw the other in that club. Salt went unselected in today’s IPL auction, and channelled any frustration to good effect.
Liam Livingstone added the finishing touches with a 20-ball half-century, the fourth fastest for England’s men. Moeen Ali holds the record with a 16-ball fifty hit against South Africa in 2022, Livingstone himself is second with a 17-ball effort against Pakistan in 2021, while Salt is third, having brought up fifty off 19 balls against Pakistan in 2022.
Phil Salt: The first England batter to make two men's T20I centuries 🧂#WIvENG pic.twitter.com/d5yDLxigUH
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) December 19, 2023
For West Indies, there were some ugly bowling figures. Most notable were Matthew Forde’s, with the T20I debutant conceding 0-54 in his three overs. Among Full Member nations, only India’s Joginder Sharma, who conceded 0-57 against England in 2007, has had worse figures on debut, though two others – England’s James Anderson and George Garton – have conceded more runs while taking a wicket.
There have now been 100 sixes hit between England and West Indies in the week, the most ever in a bilateral T20I series, even with the final game still to come.
