England’s T20I series with the West Indies finishes in Southampton on Tuesday, 6.30pm UK time, and I won’t be shedding too many tears following an underwhelming start to the English international summer.
I did shed a few tears on Sunday, when both teams to score 200+ runs bets went down after the tourists finished on 196-6 batting first, despite blasting 47 from the final two overs.
Quite what they were doing in the middle overs, with wickets in hand, is anybody's guess, though I suspect they initially gave far too much respect to England spinners Adil Rashid and Liam Dawson, still bruised from Friday’s defeat in Durham on an unusually dry surface up north.
Rashid has a fine record against the West Indies, but with plenty of spin on offer, Dawson stole the show that day, finishing with figures of 4-20 on his return to the England set-up.
On Sunday, the West Indies plainly got their tactics wrong, believing the pitch in Bristol had more demons in it than it actually did. Only when they let their foot off the handbrake late in the innings would they have realised how badly they had missed a trick.
I still think this West Indies T20 batting line-up has big scores in them, but Southampton isn’t guaranteed to suit better than Durham and Bristol did.
It’s been a mixed bag from a small sample size here in the Vitality Blast this season, with Hampshire making 230 on one occasion but Gloucestershire getting rolled out for only 119.
And when England and Australia contested a T20I on this ground last September, 179 played 151, though that fixture came very late in the season.
Nevertheless, I will sit out the both teams to score markets this time, especially with the West Indies continuing to dumfound.
Instead, I’m going to have a couple of small bets in the Man of the Match market on ADIL RASHID and JACOB BETHELL.
Rashid has looked as good as ever this summer, taking nine wickets against this opposition in the preceding three-match ODI series, and then bowling expertly in Durham.
He eventually went for plenty in Bristol, but Southampton is a much bigger ground than the one on Sunday and if the West Indies finally decide to take the attack to Rashid, they could be in trouble.
As for Bethell, available at 13/1, he really is the coming man for England in all formats, and it’s been noticeable how much his left-arm spin has been used already this summer.
He finished with 2-27 in the series opener, and then 1-24 on Sunday, while with the bat, he has made a couple of rapid cameos to go with the outstanding 82 he made in the ODI series.
The full package, Bethell will be involved in so much that England do on Tuesday, so betting on him to make another big impact makes sense.
Preview published at 1500 BST on 09/06/25
We are committed in our support of safer gambling.
Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at and .