Powell vindicated his selection, grasped opportunity: Pollard

Kieron Pollard. Pic/AFP

West Indies limited-overs skipper Kieron Pollard heaped praise on Rovman Powell who scored a blistering century against England in the third T20I.

Powell and Nicholas Pooran's dominant performance with the bat was backed up by a solid bowling performance as West Indies defeated England by 20 runs in the third T20I.

"Powell vindicated the selection, but we still needed to bat well. Batted first and batted well, Powell came in and grasped the opportunity, so well done to him. We played well against spinners, that's something that hasn't happened in the recent past. We set the template, spoke about it a lot in the meetings. We can always bring the big shots into play, one boundary was short and we could clear it. Sometimes we'll have to take the ego out of the game," Pollard said after the game.

"I just used the dimensions of the ground well (while bowling) - our bowling line-up is a bit inexperienced and that has meant more overs for me, which is something I'm willing to do for the team. The challenge for us is to replicate this performance in the next game, the good thing is we can celebrate this win for a longer time. England are making changes, so we will have to come back and do exactly the same thing on Saturday," he added.

With this win, the hosts have gained a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. The fourth T20I will be played on Saturday.

Chasing 225, England kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and it was only Tom Banton and Philip Salt who showed some fight and resistance with the bat. Banton scored 73 while Salt played a 57-run knock, but in the end, it was not enough as Windies registered a 20-run win. For West Indies, Romario Shepherd returned with three wickets while Kieron Pollard took two.

Earlier, Rovman Powell's 107-run knock and Nicholas Pooran's 70-run innings helped West Indies post 224/5 in the allotted twenty overs. Powell scored 107 off just 53 balls with the help of 4 fours and 10 sixes.

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