World Cup 2019: England vs West Indies match preview

By
Aliha Ejaz
File photo 

SOUTHAMPTON: The nineteenth match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 will be played between England and the West Indies today at The Hampshire Bowl, Southampton.

England and the West Indies have been two of the most impressive teams we have seen in the ICC World Cup 2019 so far. 

The two sides played exceptionally great in their previous matches, which ended in a 2-2 draw.

This face-off will be a showdown with two of the world's most explosive batting line-ups playing against each other. 

England´s Ben Stokes (L) celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of Bangladesh´s Mohammad Saifuddin during the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Photo: AFP

England is the world’s number one ranked team and is playing in home conditions. They got their campaign back on track with a dominant victory over Bangladesh after the surprise defeat to Pakistan. 

England’s batting is the strongest in the world and they currently have three out of the top-4 scorers in this World Cup.

Jason Roy, Jos Butler, and Joe Root have all hit centuries already while Ben Stokes came near to scoring one too.

However, their bowling attack is no less, they have the best bowlers of the tournament like Mark Wood and Jofra Archer having testing speeds of over 150 km/h and can pose a threat to any batting side.

Though England should be careful about underestimating the  West Indies.

On the other hand, mighty Windies won an important game against Pakistan and lost one close encounter against Australia.

Windies celebrating after a wicket. Photo: file.

As a team West Indies are underdogs of this mega event as they have plenty of all-rounders that can contribute in all areas of the game and they seem to have power hitters for every moment.

West Indies has a lot of match winners on its side but England is definitely more consistent.

ENG-WI ODI stats

Head to head ODI matches: 101

England won: 51

West Indies won: 44

Tied: 0

No result: 6

Highest total: 418/6 by England in 2019

Lowest total: 113 by England in 2019

Most runs: 1619 runs in 36 matches by IVA Richards (WI) including 11 fifties and 3 centuries

Most wickets: 41 wickets by MD Marshall (WI) in 26 matches played

Weather conditions at The Rose Bowl, Southampton

Over the past week, the weather was terrible but it looks like in this match we will get some cricket to watch. Though there is some rain around the area though the forecast is quite good for cricket.

England's squad for ICC World Cup 2019: Eoin Morgan (c), Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Liam Dawson, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Jofra Archer, Tom Curran, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett, Mark Wood.

West Indies squad for World Cup 2019: Jason Holder (capt), Fabian Allen, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell, Shannon Gabriel, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope (wk), Evin Lewis, Ashley Nurse, Nicholas Pooran, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Oshane Thomas.