England vs West Indies LIVE: T20 World Cup latest score and updates

Technically, yes. There was less fuss and fanfare at the tournament’s original onset but we’ve already had a highly intriguing seven days of preliminary action. Eight sides, split evenly into two groups, jostled to fill out the Super 12s, with the top two from each group progressing.

On largely difficult surfaces for batting, there was some thoroughly enjoyable cricket, with plenty of twists and turns. Scotland recovered from 53-6 to stun Bangladesh and help extend their stay in the Middle East, with Mahmudullah’s side eventually joining them in progressing from the Oman-based group after beating the hosts and Papua New Guinea.

However it was in the other group where more of the action lay, with unfavoured Namibia, powered by former South African international and Sussex star David Wiese, shocking more illustrious company iin the Netherlands and Ireland to progress alongside a dangerous Sri Lanka.

The Namibians join Scotland in Group 2 while Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are the two sides in Group 1 not in action today.

We’ll have plenty more on England against the West Indies imminently with teams due over the wire in about 20 minutes time, but first to events in Abu Dhabi, where South Africa and Australia have kicked off Group 1 action.

It’s been mighty intriguing. Having asked the Proteas to bat, Aaron Finch’s strong bowling attack punctured the South Africans regularly with Temba Bavuma’s team only able to muster 118.

But that is proving a trickier total than it first appeared to track down on a bowler friendly surface, with spinners Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi putting a squeeze on. Glenn Maxwell and Steve Smith appeared well-set to guide Australia home but have each been dismissed and with Matthew Wade and Marcus Stoinis at the crease, Australia need 25 from the final three.

We’ll update you on how that finishes up in a moment.

Now England vs the West Indies may not be the first match of the fully-fledged group stages (more on that shortly) but it is rightly the centrepiece of an outstanding opening day. The finalists from five years ago meet again as the holders of the two major international white-ball trophies, two sides who have so evolved their game and would rank right among the finest in this format’s reasonably short history.

The Dubai International Cricket Stadium is our venue this afternoon as some of T20’s biggest stars get ready to glitter under the glare of the Emirati lights.

Now England vs the West Indies may not be the first match of the fully-fledged group stages (more on that shortly) but it is rightly the centrepiece of an outstanding opening day. The finalists from five years ago meet again as the holders of the two major international white-ball trophies, two sides who have so evolved their game and would rank right among the finest in this format’s reasonably short history.

The Dubai International Cricket Stadium is our venue this afternoon as some of T20’s biggest stars get ready to glitter under the glare of the Emirati lights.

It’s here. There are few times you can accuse the powers that be of making us wait for high-class cricket, such is the nature of a crammed calendar, but this men’s T20 World Cup has taken its time to arrive. It is five and a half long years since Ian Bishop’s immortal commentary heralded Carlos Braithwaite’s hoist to seal twin triumphs for the West Indies in India but finally, finally, the tournament proper has arrived.

And how it is overdue. The last five years has seen Twenty20 cricket boom exponentially, entirely new leagues on sometime unfamiliar shores starting, fizzing, and failing. The sport’s strategy has evolved, entire gambits having been both uncovered and figured out since Braithwaite’s towering blows: pinch-sloggers; darty part-timers in the powerplay.

We’ve had two shifts of venue and a year’s delay, a change of name and new nations making their mark. After a thrilling final set of qualifiers, the group stages in the United Arab Emirates have belatedly begun.

We’re around an hour away from the match getting underway and it promises to be an exciting one - here are the latest odds:

England 4/6

W Indies 16/11

Welcome to The Independent’s live coverage as England begin their T20 World Cup campaign against reigning champions West Indies.

It promises to be a thrilling match and England will be desperate to wreak revenge after falling short in a dramatic 2016 final when Carlos Braithwaite hit four successive sixes to complete a nail-biting chase.