Win against WI has given confidence and momentum: England opener Salt

Gros Islet (St Lucia), Jun 20 (PTI) England opener Phil Salt said the convincing eight-wicket victory over the West Indies in their Super Eight clash has given his side “confidence and momentum” at the right time in the T20 World Cup after a chaotic run in the event’s group stage.

Salt played a major hand in the win here, racing his way to an unbeaten 87 off 47 balls as the defending champions replied to the home team’s 180/4 with 181/2 in 17.3 overs.

“It’s been a very stop-start (tournament) for us. We had a hiccup against Australia and then, the rain out against Scotland. It didn’t really feel like we played much cricket up to this point,” Salt said in the post-match press meet.

“I feel in tournament cricket, you need a bit of confidence and momentum at the right time and you need to keep building on it. So, to get a win against the hosts gives us the first push in that direction,” he added.

The stats would show that Salt made his runs at a strike-rate in excess of 185, but the right-hander had to knuckle down a bit after the quick dismissals of Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali before opening up again.

Salt said he was eyeing the right moment to attack the West Indies bowlers.

“It was more about me batting through, once Jos got out, I was always going to sort of play the anchor role, especially when we sent Moeen as the lefty.

“I think it was about me just batting through that period and waiting for my time to strike,” he noted.

The 27-year-old Welshman switched to top gear in the 16th over bowled by Romario Shepherd, smashing 30 runs off the pacer to seal the chase.

“Obviously, Shepherd coming back from that end was my time to pull the trigger. In the back of my head I did, (visualise it) but I didn’t vocalise it to Jonny (Bairstow, his batting partner). I didn’t want him to say no.

“I feel like they’ve got such good spinners and they’ve bowled really well through the middle, so, I felt like the first sniff I got, I had to take that chance,” he added.

Salt also lauded pacer Jofra Archer and leg-spinner Adil Rashid for restricting the West Indies to a sub-200 total.

“I think we bowled really well coming here for the first time. I think we would have definitely taken 180. We had some really good plans and we kept a few of their main guys quiet.

“So, I think from Jofra and Rash (Rashid) that’s a really experienced, skilled bit of reading the game and then the execution,” said Salt.