World T20: Morgan fires but England are on brink

England are still the World T20 holders but they are clinging on to their title by their fingertips after losing to the West Indies by 15 runs in their opening Super Eight game. Lose against New Zealand or Sri Lanka, their next two opponents in this stage, and they will almost certainly be on the early plane home.

It was the second defeat in five days for Stuart Broad's side, who lost by a record margin of 90 runs to India in Colombo last Sunday. Asked to chase 180, after Johnson Charles and Chris Gayle's century opening partnership enabled the West Indies to score 179 for five, the defending champions eventually made 164 for four.

This was a far more spirited -performance from England, despite losing two wickets in the first over of their run chase. Eoin Morgan, with a pyrotechnic 71 from 36 balls, and Alex Hales, who made a more -measured 68, put on 107 in 9.4 overs and reduced the target to 23 runs off the final over. Before they came together a West Indies win had looked a formality.

"It was always going to be tough chasing that total after the start we had," Hales said. "But I thought we fought back very well and when Eoin came in and played outstandingly well it gave us half a chance towards the end. After their innings we were confident as it was a good batting track, but getting off to start like that we were always chasing the game."

On a pitch staging its second match of the day, Morgan struck the ball with a certainty that had been -missing from his game of late in this format and he reached his half-century off 25 balls, the equal fastest for World T20 matches.

His six hitting - and he struck five of them - certainly put the wind up the West Indies, whose bowlers were suddenly forced to change their plans mid-over. But brilliant knock though it was, it flattered England's final standing in the match.

Had Morgan come in to join Alex Hales in place of Jonny Bairstow, who was promoted to No?4 in that calamitous opening over, he might have been celebrating a win. Bairstow scored 18 off 29 balls, a sojourn that made Morgan and Hales's task much more difficult.

"We felt that Eoin's skills in the middle were more valuable to us, so we decided to save him for the -middle overs," Hales said.

After England's inept batting against India, the West Indies packed their side with spinners, and they bowled all but five of the 20 overs.

England's appalling start was due to medium pace, though, Ravi -Rampaul reducing them to nought for two after three balls by dismissing Craig Kieswetter and Luke Wright in successive deliveries.

The block-slog binary approach of Kieswetter lasted just two balls this time, his attempt to pull Rampaul, resulting in a spooned catch to cover. And a bad start for England got instantly worse when Wright followed, caught at slip by Gayle, trying to leave the ball alone.

The catch led Gayle into his latest celebration routine of the Gangnam dance, a move popularised by a Korean dance troupe. He went through it again when he got Bairstow out, caught brilliantly by Kieron Pollard.

The West Indies' fielding was -outstanding. Andre Russell's salmon leap to catch a certain six from Morgan and flick of the ball while in mid-air beyond the boundary to save four runs (the batsmen had run two) would have been a contender for the man of the match award had the West Indies won by fewer than four runs. As it was, Charles won the award for his swashbuckling innings of 84 off 56 balls.

Before the match, all the focus had been on Gayle, West Indies' Darth Vader of the bat. But while he played a destructive cameo it was his

opening partner who did the lasting damage.

Charles, 23, made his T20 debut against England in 2011, since when his highest score in internationals had been 37.

Short but muscular, he gets tremendous bat speed through the ball, as Graeme Swann discovered to his cost, when Charles struck him for two mighty sixes and a four in the space of four balls.

Those mighty blows concluded a tranche of 10 balls in which Gayle and Charles struck five sixes, Gayle smashing three of them off Samit Patel. He might have gone on the first, a pull shot, had Morgan not misjudged the flight, but he did and it just about made it over the ropes at midwicket.

Sighting high balls under the lights at Pallekele does not seem straightforward. Steven Finn dropped Charles on 39 off Swann at long-off, then caught Gayle next ball after the batsman miscued a hack. Later, when Wright caught a steepler off Pollard, Stuart Broad made out that he had never seen it at any stage.

With two more matches left in the Super Eight stage, England have no margin for error left. From now on, their cricket must be mistake-free if they are to have any chance of making it to the semi-finals back in Colombo.