Liam Livingstone has called on England to “get up to speed as quickly as possible” and be smarter with the bat after an eight-wicket thumping by the West Indies in the first ODI.
With captain Jos Buttler out injured and several Test stars unavailable, England gave debuts to Jordan Cox, Dan Mousley, Jamie Overton and John Turner but they were all out for an anaemic 209 in 45.1 overs.
England’s inexperience in this format was highlighted as all of their top-six reached double figures before contributing to their own demise, with Livingstone’s 48 off 49 balls their top score.
Batting seemed easier under lights but England’s efforts were put into perspective by Evin Lewis’ 94 off 69 balls, which helped the Windies chase down a rain-adjusted target of 157 in 35 overs with ease.
Livingstone insisted England will not change tack for Saturday’s second ODI, which they must win to keep the series alive, but he has suggested his batters in particular can adapt better.
“We’ve got to get up to speed as quickly as possible,” Livingstone said after his England captaincy debut ended in a heavy loss.
“We had four debuts and they’ll have learnt a hell of a lot from what they experienced and hopefully they’ll come on from that.
“We’re not going to take a backward step but sometimes we’ve got to be a little bit more smart. Hopefully conditions will be a little bit different (on Saturday) and we can go again.”
A top-four of Phil Salt, Will Jacks, Cox and Jacob Bethell made scores of between 17 and 27 on a slow pitch where timing was a particular issue but Livingstone put on 72 in 84 balls with Sam Curran.
However, Livingstone meekly pushing a return catch back Gudakesh Motie was the start of England losing their last six wickets for just 44 runs. Slow left-armer Motie took four of them in 15 deliveries.
“I don’t think we read conditions quite as well as we could have,” Livingstone said. “When me and Sam were in, we were on for 240-250, which if conditions didn’t change would have been a challenging total.
“Unfortunately I got out at the wrong time, it fell away from that. A pretty disappointing day with the bat; we pride ourselves on one of our top-six getting a score and unfortunately we didn’t get that.”
Livingstone was heartened by Turner’s performance with the ball, after he pinged Brandon King on the elbow with his first delivery in international cricket and routinely challenged the opener’s edges.
But Livingstone elected not to call upon seam bowling all-rounder Jamie Overton, who was essentially a specialist batter at number eight and got a golden duck after being given out lbw on review off Motie.
“He’s not fit to play a full role,” Livingstone said. “He’s coming back from a big (back) injury. We’re just trying to nurse him back in. We had three seam options so we didn’t really think we’d need him.”
England slipped to a 12th defeat in their last 18 ODIs, stretching back to the start of last year’s 50-over World Cup, as the Windies coasted over the line with 9.1 overs to spare.
Lewis was central to victory, bludgeoning eight sixes and five fours, under a week on from ending a three-year absence in ODIs with a match-winning unbeaten century against Sri Lanka in Pallekele.
He might have made it back-to-back hundreds only to perish in the deep off Adil Rashid after going for his ninth six to take him to three figures. With 13 required for victory, it hardly mattered.
“It’s great to see him back,” Windies captain Shai Hope said. “He’s just striking the ball so nicely.
“He’s one of those guys who if you have in this team, you have an impactful player. He’s someone who can win a game single-handedly.
“Having him on the bench was probably a mistake but it’s great to see him back scoring runs and he’s definitely a hungry Evin Lewis. It’s good to see.”
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