- Brandon King and Keacy Carty both scored centuries for the victorious Windies
- Phil Salt stopped the bleeding for England, but it was a dominant win over Barbados
England could not find a cure for their travel sickness at the Kensington Oval as the West Indies sent them to a sixth straight defeat abroad.
Shai Hope’s West Indians made it a woeful sextet, spanning all formats and dating back to March last year, when double centurions Brandon King and Keacy Carty oversaw an eight-wicket chase to a 2-1 win to achieve.
It was sealed with seven unused overs, but the fate of this illuminated affair – a thirteenth reverse in twenty one-day internationals for England – was decided in the opening hour thanks to the loss of four wickets to the new ball.
Rarely is full recovery from such seismic early blows and although Phil Salt took responsibility for stopping the bleeding, featuring in double stands of 70 with left-handers Sam Curran and Dan Mousley to give the tourists something to bowl to , the gulf between these two opponents was put into perspective when England’s power play of two dozen was improved within fifteen replies.
England also had a tip of the hat to thank for fortune by posting 263 for eight after Romario Shepherd’s faceplant in his follow-on forced him out of the action and left the tail feasting on Sherfane Rutherford’s part-time average pace.
The West Indies players celebrate with the series trophy after beating England again
Salt and Mousley hit 74 and 57 respectively – the former a victim of King’s dexterity in a passed boundary catch – but Rutherford was not spared afterwards as Jofra Archer hit an unbeaten 38 from 17 balls, his highest score in 66 internationals all told. and the recalled Jamie Overton weighed in at 32 of 21.
Archer smashed four boundaries in a 50th, more than that cost Rutherford 25 and a total of 100 were mined from the last 10, but a mediocre target required early wickets to keep it out of reach.
In that respect, England did not make the most of Curran, the most likely bowler to swing the new ball, as West Indies had done earlier in the day. Instead, he was invited to a snack better suited to a taller man when King and Carty were done.
Both West Indian wickets were claimed by England’s recalled duo: Overton, a beneficiary of Evin Lewis getting confused with the short ball for the second time in as many games, and Reece Topley finding his way past a tired King’s clearance with just 13 runs needed.
Earlier, England were asked to bat first on an erratic delivery and probed by excessive air movement. England paid a heavy price for some injudicious strokes, losing four wickets in the first ten overs.
Jordan Cox was the exception as he gloved a delivery from the recalled Alzarri Joseph at throat height, pushing forward when he might have been better placed and capping off a miserable run of 21 runs from 57 balls in his first ODI series.
Frustratingly, his inability to impress at third coincided with a dip in form for Will Jacks. Here Jacks, like Liam Livingstone, rode well four times, but was then killed trying to repeat the stroke.
Jacob Bethell might have considered himself miserable after Roston Chase pulled down a crunching gash from above his head with one hand and held on as his body crashed to the grass below.
Such a start was bound to lose the momentum England brought with them from Antigua, where Livingstone’s centenary helped make it 1-1.
However, their response to a looming crisis at 24 for four revealed that they had impressively heeded the lessons of game one as they continued to attack and as a result failed to bat out 50 overs.
But when Salt took on the role of anchor, playing his longest ever ODI innings, they realigned things which allowed for a late charge.
Apart from indulging in his tactic of trying to take the first ball of a bowler’s new spell into orbit – it had cost him his wicket in both matches at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, but here he successfully placed Shepherd in the Joel Garner Stand at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. early 21st over – he was self-controlled.
It was Curran with 40 who was the more aggressive and delivered the lion’s share of the fifth wicket alliance, and the same was true for Mousley during the sixth.
Mousley’s first half-century in an England shirt soon followed, but it was a miserable start rather than an uplifting end to the innings that was decisive.