A superb innings of 55 off only 35 deliveries from Owais Shah took England to victory and and as such tie the series after the second of two NatWest International Twenty20 matches at the Brit Oval.

Once again the West Indies won the toss and elected to bat. With yesterday’s hero, Devon Smith, missing because of injury it was up to Chris Gayle to get his side off to a brisk start. He did so in fine form smashing 37 runs out of an opening partnership of 49 before Lendl Simmons was caught for nine off James Anderson.

When the visitors lost their second wicket with the score on 64, it was Marlon Samuels, another West Indies hero from yesterday, who gave Gayle the kind of support he needed.

The tall left-hander raced past his half century whilst at the other end, Samuels was once more showing his ball striking prowess.

Gayle took his side up to 108 and himself to 61 before a top edge off England skipper, Paul Collingwood saw him caught by Stuart Broad.

Samuels continued to strike the ball a long way however this was not reciprocated at the other end. Feeling the extra pressure to score runs, the West Indies number four went for all his shots and was eventually caught in the deep for a rapid 42 from 20 balls.

After Samuels’ dismissal, the boundaries came with less frequency as the middle order scrambled for runs. With the pressure on, there was the inevitable run out as the West Indies finally posted 169 for seven from their 20 overs.

In reply, England got off to a steady start, but some hostile bowling from Daren Powell ended with Ali Cook being cleaned up for 13.

Matt Prior then played some outrageous shots to race himself up to 22 before attempting one too many to be bowled. Both Powell and Ravi Rampaul made use of the new ball to find some movement off the pitch, which made life difficult for the new batsmen. Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen struggled to play their shots with conviction and as such England slumped to 68 for four.

Collingwood began to rebuild the innings and seemed as though he was going to play another classic knock. However it wasn't to be as the England skipper was stumped on 27, with his side still requiring 66 for victory.

In trouble, England were relying heavily on Shah. The Middlesex man did not disappoint the capacity Brit Oval crowd as he amazingly struck boundary after boundary with cleverly manoeuvred strokes. He brought up his half century from only 30 balls and in doing so, took his team within 19 runs of the finish line.

This was soon six from last six balls that were bowled by the West Indies’ captain Gayle. His awkward off-spin was difficult to get away but Dimitri Mascarenhas and Shah managed to scramble four runs off the first few deliveries, leaving just two needed from the last three. England finally got home with three balls to spare, thanks to a wide that went for four. With victory the home side managed to tie the NatWest International Twenty20 series at the Brit Oval one match all.

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