Series levelled, confidence boosted, crisis averted. England felt they had won nine-tenths of the opening game against West Indies only to see it stolen from them by an electrifying late surge. Here, though, they added that extra 10%, dominating from first to last to win by six wickets and travel to Barbados for the final one‑day international on Saturday in high spirits – and not just because they are about to get significantly improved access to golf courses.
“We fancy a chase today,” Jos Buttler said after winning a statistically unlikely ninth successive toss, but such was their bowlers’ success that they barely got half of one.
The hosts’ 202 all out with a shade over 10 overs unbowled was so far below par as to be positively subterranean and though, having made a bright start, England did a little light excavating of their own, they crossed the line with 103 balls to spare, with half-centuries for both Buttler and Will Jacks.
After 10 overs West Indies were 41 for four; after five England were 44 without loss and Jacks had just pummelled two fours and a six off a single Alzarri Joseph over. The first of those, to be fair, he knew little about, a snorter that caressed the bat and cleared the wicketkeeper, the third time either Jacks or Phil Salt had managed to just evade a fielder behind the stumps and get a boundary for their pains.
But the opening partnership was broken with precisely 50 on the board, Salt bowled by Romario Shepherd for 21, and both Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett made only three before falling to Gudakesh Motie’s off-spin. When Jacks was trapped lbw to become Sherfane Rutherford’s first ODI wicket, having scored 73 off 72, England were 116 for four and at risk of losing their iron grip on the game.
Which made this a decent moment for Buttler to rediscover how to bat and, with Harry Brook for company and fewer than three an over required, England’s captain emphatically obliged.
He eventually completed his first half-century in 14 innings, dating back to before the World Cup, by heaving Oshane Thomas down the ground for six, one of three boundaries in an over that ended with the scores tied, leaving Brook to finish the job.
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Flintoff returns to England coaching team
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Andrew Flintoff will rejoin England’s backroom staff for their T20 series against West Indies this month.
The former England captain has gradually returned to the public eye following a car crash while filming a stunt for BBC programme Top Gear 12 months ago, which left him with facial and rib injuries.
Coaxed by close friend and director of England men’s cricket Rob Key, Flintoff first linked up with the national side in an unpaid role for ODI series against New Zealand and Ireland before the World Cup.
Flintoff, whose performances with bat and ball in England’s 2005 Ashes triumph earned him cult hero status, has since been confirmed as head coach of Northern Superchargers men’s side in The Hundred.
He is not part of the England setup for their ODI series against the Windies but it is understood he will fly out to Barbados this week ahead of five T20s, the first of which is next Tuesday. PA Media
Gus Atkinson and Sam Curran had started the day by ripping through the hosts’ top order, and by the end of the seventh over four wickets had fallen, 23 runs had been scored, and the home side already found themselves in a position that leads almost inevitably to defeat. Curran, remorselessly punished in the opener on Sunday, had three of them, two caught at slip and Shimron Hetmyer trapped lbw without scoring. The umpire had been unimpressed with the appeal and, having decided to review, England watched the first replay and immediately abandoned their semi‑celebration considering their cause hopeless, only for DRS to decide the ball was going to rip out leg stump.
Atkinson had made the initial breakthrough with a lovely delivery that bemused Alick Athanaze and flicked a glove on its way through, and it was a measure of his control during his opening spell that when Shai Hope sent the first ball of his fourth over down the ground for four it doubled the number of runs he had conceded.
In the first match of the series Rutherford had walloped the first delivery of his ODI career down the ground for six, but this was a very different challenge, one that required a more sober approach, and he modified his impressively. When he eventually removed the shackles, dumping Rehan Ahmed over midwicket for six, it was to reach his half-century, a mark Hope, clicking straight back into the form that brought him a match-winning century on Sunday, had already passed. From 23 for four West Indies reached 152 without further loss.
At which point it all fell apart. Rutherford, Yannic Cariah and Hope were dispatched in the space of three Liam Livingstone overs, Ahmed dealt with Shepherd and Motie.
When Joseph skied the ball straight back to Atkinson to end the innings, West Indies had lost their last six wickets for precisely 60 runs and England had cannily avoided another potentially brutal exposure of their death-over bowling by ensuring they didn’t have to bowl any.
