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Key events
Ali Martin
Barbados boils as hot as soup in a pot, but the breeze helps. A nice atmosphere building at Kensington Oval, where punters are already keeping their hydration levels up and fruit vendors are already doing good business in the concessions outside the Hall & Griffith stand. I have just spoken to David Harris, a local doyen of cricket and calypso, who told me that the children from Jofra Archer’s old school, the Foundation, will be in the stands today. Wonderful stuff.
THAT MOMENT WILL BE ON TONIGHT AS WELL
Introducing… Scotland
Coach Doug Watson Captain Richie Berrington T20WC the best Super 12, 2021
The highest-ranked associate – they are 12th – Scotland went unbeaten in European qualifying last summer, pipping Ireland to top spot thanks to an eight-goal victory over them in the final match. A cohesive unit that beat the West Indies two years ago, they have since been boosted by the arrival of Brandon McMullen on the first game. Knock England off first and it will blow Group B wide open.
Mark Wood was selected ahead of Reece Topley. That’s the word on the street in Bridgetown and an interesting statement of aggressive intent from England. I may have gone with Topley, but that’s easy to see from 4,098 miles away.
Preamble
One of the advantages of choosing your own groups as the ICC has for this T20 World Cup, you can have as many big rivalries as you want: USA vs. Canada, England vs. Australia, India vs. Pakistan, Sri Lanka vs. Bangladesh. And England v Scotland in Barbados today. It’s a special day for three of England’s likely XI: Jofra Archer, Chris Jordan and Phil Salt all spent part of their formative years on the island and all have put in the hard yards – gazillions of them in Jofra’s case – to earn their place today.
All things being equal, England will win, but this sentence really is a bunch of nonsense. Scotland are a decent side and things are really even in T20 cricket. Nor were they when Scotland beat England in Edinburgh in an ODI six years ago. Don’t allow for shock, but don’t dismiss it as a possibility either.
The match starts at 3.30pm BST, 10.30am in Barbados.
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