Preview Clash of heavyweights as defending champions take on hosts High-octane duel anticipated as two-time champions go head-to-head in Super Eight Andrew Miller 18-Jun-2024 • 44 mins ago 3:29 Bishop: Confidence the key for West Indies at the business end Match details West Indies vs England June 19, St Lucia, 8.30pm local time Big picture: After the angst they endured in the group stage, England have floated down to St Lucia on a wave of exhalation. Whatever happens in their T20 World Cup defence from hereon in, their avoidance of a humiliating first-round exit might yet prove to be as much of a fillip as four rousing wins from four.
Their campaign can begin in earnest now, which is just as well, because they are about to bump into a team which no such concerns to weigh them down. England and West Indies are each competing for an unprecedented third T20 World Cup title, and the events at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground in Beausejour - a venue named in honour of the man who delivered the hosts those first two titles - could go some way towards confirming the readiness, or otherwise, of these two very real contenders for the crown. West Indies are fit, focused and firing on all cylinders.
They come into this contest on an eight-match unbeaten run, and if there were a few early-tournament nerves on show in an anxious pair of Group C victories over Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, then their unmitigated thrashings of Uganda and a highly-rated Afghanistan have assuaged them in.