Broad praise for Hales’s 99 run record knock
ENGLAND captain Stuart Broad heaped praise upon batting hero Alex Hales after yesterday’s Twenty20 victory denied West Indies a single win against the hosts during their summer tour.
Ahead of this Friday’s opening one-day international against Australia, England saw off West Indies with a narrow win in the shorter version of the game. Hales top scored on 99 runs, the highest ever score for an England player in a Twenty20.
“West Indies hit it fantastically at the death… [but] the way Alex Hales batted was absolutely fantastic,” Broad enthused.
Yet the England captain also admitted that Hales “was pretty distraught not to get 100 and the 20-odd thousand in Trent Bridge would have felt the same.”
With just two balls to go England’s Eoin Morgan drove a full toss that earned two runs after Dwayne Bravo spilled in the field, winning the game as the home side reached 173-3 to beat West Indies’ 172-4.
But Morgan’s shot prevented Hales from scoring the winning runs in front the Nottinghamshire player’s home crowd.
Broad, who also represents Nottinghamshire, also added that England have room for improvement before facing tougher tests against Australia.
“We did some really good things today…[but] there are certain things we can improve on,” Broad said. “Having not played Twenty20 cricket for a while, you expect to be a little bit rusty in the thinking, not so much the skills. We didn’t maybe didn’t react as quickly as we could.”
England play five one day games against Australia before South Africa arrive for a crunch Test series, starting on 19 July.