West Indies takes 1st T20 against England

Chris Gayle made his return to the West Indies team a winning occasion, hitting 43 from a total of 170/3, to which England responded with only 143/9, in the first of three 20/Twenty matches at Bridgetown Barbados on Sunday.

But it was Gayle's fellow Jamaican, Marlon Samuels, who took the batting honours, top scoring with 69 from 59 balls for the man-of-the-match award.

West Indies won the toss and elected to bat, Dwayne Smith opening the batting with Gayle. Smith was the early aggressor, taking 19 runs off Stuart Broad's opening over, including a six off the very first ball.

Gayle really got going in the fifth over, taking three fours off Tim Bresnan. He then blasted Ben Stokes for a six and a four in the next over, and the England bowlers must have begun to worry about the damage he was likely to inflict.  

They got a breakthrough in the next over, however, Ravi Bopara getting rid of the dangerous Smith, bowled for 27.

Gayle hit a few more lusty blows but didn't take it all the way, going LBW to Tredwell for 43 off 35 balls, including five fours and two sixes, in the 12th over.

In the meantime, Samuels, who had replaced Smith, was getting set to launch an asault. This he did in the 13th over, taking 16 runs, including two fours and a six off the bowling of Ben Stokes.

At the start of the 18th over, with Samuels well set, England snubbed a glorious chance to cut him down. He drover Jade Dernbach's first ball straignt to Tredwell at cover, but the fielder failed to hold onto the straight forward chance. As if to rub salt into a raw wound, Samuels then dispatched each of the next five ball of the over to the boundary, taking his score from 43 at the start of the over, to 63 at the end of it.

Thirteen runs came off the penultimate over, with Andre Russell making his presence felt with a lusty blow for six over point.

The final over was not as costly as England might have feared, conceding only five runs, mostly due to tight bowling by Dernbach.

Ultimately the target of 170 proved too daunting for the visitors, who got off to a very bad start, losing two wickets in successive balls from Badree in the fourth over - Alex Hales and Luke Wright both stumped by wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin.

Wickets fell regularly thereafter and by the half-way stage of the innings, half the batsmen were back in the pavillion - England 58/5.

From that position, the innings never got the momentum required to overhaul the target, despite some late order hitting by Tim Bresnan, who top scored with 47.