Rovman Powell's bruising monologue leaves England battered and beaten

Rovman Powell paused for a moment and shook his head, as if in disbelief at the scale of the innings that had come before. 

All around the Kensington Oval, supporters of both West Indies and England shared the sentiment. In little more than an hour, Powell had delivered a T20 tour de force, a bruising monologue that spared no quarter on an impotent and largely impatient England attack.

This was an astonishing innings, belligerent and strangely beautiful, which set West Indies up for their second win over the top-ranked T20I nation in the world in three attempts across five days. They only lost the other by a single run.

In becoming just the third West Indian man to make an international T20 hundred - both Deandra Dottin and Hayley Matthews have achieved the feat among women - Powell reaffirmed the talent which has been talked about in the Caribbean and on the franchise circuit for half a decade.

^{Rovman Powell recognises the crowd's applause at the Kensington Oval (Randy Brooks/AFP via Getty Images)}

Powell's teammates will tell you he is a cricketing Superman, softly-spoken but brimming with self-belief, capable of changing a game. 

Andre Russell, whom he regards as his idol, has previously said the 28-year-old has all the attributes to achieve as much as he has in the game. That is no slight praise from a man with 6,500 short-form runs, 350 wickets, and among the most glittering T20 CVs of all time, but Powell’s record across nearly 70 international appearances suggests that promise has not quite been realised.

There is still time, though, and while he might have lived his international career on the fringes, performances like this one - so dominant England really ought to have come prepared with a safeword - will at least ensure his name remains in circulation among selectors.

There is a West Indies rebuild going on right now, of course, after the golden generation’s unhappy swansong in the UAE, and places are up for grabs. 

If Powell can capture this raw bombast more regularly, that spot is his for keeps.

Seventy-six of his 107 came in boundaries, including 10 sixes - several of which threatened to crack the lenses of the TV cameras situated above the media centre - and while England did play to his strengths, namely the full toss, there was more to this innings than simply punishing the bad ball.

He struck cleanly, on both offside and leg, and squeezed every last ounce of runs out of his innings with his relentless speed between the wickets, to such an extent that he looked flushed by the time he was eventually dismissed, caught by Liam Livingstone diving forwards at long-off off Adil Rashid.

But it was his straight driving, off both pace and spin, which was most eye-catching - there would have been holidaymakers sat on cruise liners in the nearby Bridgetown docks who will have heard the penetrating crack of Powell’s bat as he thrashed George Garton, Liam Livingstone and Reece Topley into various parts of the crowd.

Sanitiser supplies at the Kensington Oval will certainly need restocking ahead of the weekend double-header, given the amount of time the ball spent in the hands of punters and patrons. 

^{Powell made 107 for West Indies in the third T20I against England (Randy Brooks/AFP via Getty Images)}

And then, with a gentle tuck into the legside, and another quick turn for two, he followed the mighty Chris Gayle and his apprentice Evin Lewis into an elite list of T20I century-makers. 

Perhaps, in those few seconds of quiet contemplation before he recognised the appreciation of the fans, Powell was thinking about the company he now keeps. More likely, he will have been thinking about his journey.

Powell’s story is touching: he didn’t know his father, who told his mum Joan she should get an abortion and then offered no support during pregancy, and he grew up in poverty on Jamaica, where he reared goats behind his family’s two-room home.

Cricket has pulled his family out of those circumstances - his career has paid for a new house for his mother - and his roots remain important to him. 

Maybe, then, that momentary look to the sky and shake of his head was neither shock nor surprise, but pride, both in terms of where he has come from and what he has achieved.

For England, the experience appeared traumatising. 

Aside from Topley and Rashid, whose combined eight overs went for 55 runs, the remainder of the attack lacked discipline and leaked runs. The number of full tosses sent down across 20 overs will be of particular concern.

But none of that should detract from Powell's spotlight-stealing show. 

After his maiden one-day international century in Zimbabwe in the World Cup qualifier of 2018, he suggested that - so fond were his memories of the day - he would want to call his first-born daughter Harare. Kensington would certainly do the job, too.