Sammy: Both teams have power, difference will be with the ball

"It's a battle. It's going to be a battle."

West Indies head coach Daren Sammy's words echoed at the Wankhede Stadium press conference room like a prescient warning for the Wednesday game. They almost implied that the clash between England and West Indies would be decided by which team would consistently make louder sounds of the ball pinging off their bats. Except that they didn't.

These are not just two promising sides in Group C. They are both two-time T20 champions, two powerhouse batting line-ups, two XIs with enviable batting depth, and two teams that are known to hit not just big but also lots of sixes.

Ever since West Indies lifted their second T20 World Cup in 2016, they have been extolled as the original six-hitters, a batting "invention" in Sammy's words, which set the trend for other teams to follow suit. Even though India might be the hot favourites for this T20 World Cup because of their unmatchable six-hitting in recent times, that tag has largely been attributed to them over the last year or so, ever since they adopted a fresh hitting approach with their new generation of batters under a new captain. You stretch the timeline back further and England have been the other team to be consistent ball-bashers in the last 10 years, an approach rewarded with knockout finishes in the last four T20 World Cups and a trophy in 2022.

But the result won't be decided by who hits more sixes on Wednesday, Sammy said, because both teams are neck and neck in that aspect.

"We've always been entertainers, and England has also been entertaining," Sammy said. "Since that period (2016), I think England is the opposition we probably have played most T20s against. If I could recall, over the last three years, we've had probably three series, five-match series, whether it be in the Caribbean or in England. And we play against each other very high-scoring games. The surface here at Wankhade tells you [that] you need to put some good runs on the board if you bat first. What I see, yes, 2016, we were known for our six-hitting, but the world has caught up to that. Everybody now hits sixes and they run really well between the wickets. They score off more balls. So we have a lot to do. But then we just probably might have to hit more sixes then, something we were able to do when we dominated during that era."

But as soon as Sammy had said that, it was as if a realisation dawned on him that six-hitting was not going to be enough.

"And tomorrow, we've got to be smart. Both teams have that power. I think it will rely on which team executes better with the ball. Because I think we could match each other when it comes to six-hitting."

If England have an explosive opening pair of Phil Salt and Jos Buttler, West Indies are known for their lower-order six-hitting, as their Nos. 4 to 7 have cleared the boundary 154 times since the last T20 World Cup, only one six behind India. While England's sixes for Nos. 4 to 7 amount to just 89 in comparison, their balls-per-sixes ratio of 12.18 is in fact marginally better than West Indies' 12.49 as England have played only 12 games compared to West Indies' 21 in the period.

Where England really trump West Indies is the scoring rate, as their lower-order hitters have gone at nearly 152 compared to West Indies' 133.78. Among Full Member teams, England are the only side so far who have breached the magical 300-figure, against South Africa only a few months ago. Overall too, England have, on an average, scored a run more than West Indies per over they have faced since the last T20 World Cup.

"You have an idea of what you want to do, but at the end of the day, when you go and play, what the surface dictates, you try to get an extra 20 runs if you can," Sammy said about how their batters approach the game these days. "If the par score is 190, you try to get 220 to give you some cushion with the ball. But we don't plan our batting in trying to score 300. We just look at the conditions on the day you assess what the surface dictates. You decide what skill set is required. And then you hope the skills that you have, you could deliver with it. So, I think that's how we approach it.

"We have class openers in Shai Hope and Brandon King. We have an in-form Hettie (Shimron Hetmyer), since he's been at No. 3, the responsibility he's shown has been really good for us. Rovman [Powell] has been here in the IPL for a long time."

Luckily for the bowlers, the two games that have been played at the Wankhede Stadium so far this World Cup haven't produced the kind of high-scoring belters that have become the norm in the IPL. But if it rains sixes on Wednesday, the bowler who gets hit the least might win it for his team.