West Indies v England: Jos Buttler leads from front as tourists win to double lead in T20 series

England produced a dominant performance to take a 2-0 lead in their five-match T20 International series against West Indies, romping to a seven-wicket win as Jos Buttler lit up Barbados with a sparkling half-century.

After opening the series with victory in Barbados on Saturday, England returned to the same venue 24 hours later to repeat the dose.

Wickets in the powerplay got England off to a terrific start after winning the toss, with Saqib Mahmood and Jofra Archer finding prestigious movement, before Dan Mousley starred with the ball, taking his first international wickets to bag 2-29.

Facing a modest target of 159 to win in Bridgetown, England lost Phil Salt to the first ball of the innings, but breezed the chase from thereon in.

Captain Buttler was the star of the show as he delivered a masterclass of power hitting, bludgeoning 83 from 45 deliveries in an innings that contained six maximums and formed part of a century partnership with Will Jacks (38 from 29).

Both set batters departed in the same Romario Shepherd over, but much of the work had already been, and Liam Livingstone finished the chase off with 23* from 11 balls as England wrapped victory up with 31 balls to spare.

The result puts the tourists 2-0 up in the series, with the third T20I coming up on Thursday - live on TNT Sports and discovery+.

England’s returning captain was caught by a blinder first ball in the opening match of the series, but he gave everybody watching a reminder of his enormous quality with a sublime knock that made a potentially awkward chase look very straightforward for his team.

Buttler has been out of the game since the T20 World Cup back in the summer due to injury, but he shook off any early rustiness to produce some of the cleanest hits you will see, banging six sixes in his half-century.

When Buttler is in this sort of form he is right up there with the best in the world, and Sam Billings in the TNT Sports studio was effusive in his praise.

“He’s a freak," Billings said. "He is in the top tier of probably all time, and is easily England’s best white-ball batter of all time.”

England will have been extremely encouraged by the performance of Archer, who bowled really nicely having sat out the series opener, finding some big movement with the new ball and troubling the West Indies top order.

But perhaps even more encouraging for England will be the emergence of Mahmood as a fellow new-ball threat. Taking early wickets has been an issue for England of late, but Mahmood bagged three powerplay wickets in the series opener and took two more in this game in an excellent display.

England also made some interesting calls, leaving Mahmood an over short and not bowling Jamie Overton, Jacob Bethell or Will Jacks at all, in order to get a proper look at Dan Mousley. And that proved an excellent decision, as the off spinner showed off his unique style, taking his first international wicket with a trademark pace-on yorker to clean up Rovman Powell. Mousley also bowled the final over, and finished with very encouraging figures of 2-29 from his four overs.

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Watch and stream every ball of the West Indies v England T20 series in the UK on TNT Sports and discovery+