ESPNcricinfo
Whoever said “don’t answer back” had never been overlooked for a big pay cheque, or found the belligerence of Phil Salt. Responding to his IPL auction snub and resuming where his unbeaten century in the third match had kept England alive in this series, Salt thrashed a 57-ball 119 to set West Indies an eye-watering target of 268 if they wanted to end it now. They couldn’t, falling to a 75-run defeat in Taruouba as England drew level at 2-2, setting up a decider at the same ground on Thursday.
After losing the toss and admitting he would have liked to chase too, England captain Jos Buttler combined with Salt for a second century opening stand in a row to set England off towards 267 for 3, the second-highest score by a Full Member nation in T20Is. Salt reached his century off just 48 balls en route to England’s highest individual T20I score. He found willing partners after Buttler fell for 55 in Will Jacks and Liam Livingstone, who reached an unbeaten half-century.
In an entertaining match yielding 33 sixes, the third-most in men’s T20Is, Andre Russell scored five of them and Nicholas Pooran four but even combined they couldn’t better Salt’s 10. Their side was bowled out inside 16 overs, with Reece Topley taking three wickets and Sam Curran and Rehan Ahmed two apiece.
Summarized scores: England 267 for 3 (Salt 119, Buttler 55, Livingstone 54*) beat West Indies 192 (Russell 51, Pooran 39, Topley 3-37) by 75 runs