What a difference two days make. Somehow Tuesday’s ludicrous, record-smashing, high-scoring entertainment was followed by a sequel on the same surface that eventually delivered thrilling low-scoring entertainment, and a different result claimed in very different style. It was eventually won for West Indies with four balls to spare and in the most unfitting of ways – with a massive six – by Shai Hope, again proving himself the right man for a run-chase.
So a series marked by stunning power hitting, roaring run rates and an unexpected midway transformation in England’s performances and prospects concluded with a 3-2 triumph for West Indies, who extended their supremacy over England at home to four series in three formats across nearly five years.
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England assembled exactly the same players in exactly the same place and exactly the same situation – losing the toss, put in to bat – but this was an entirely different performance. A wicket once so true turned untrustworthy and they struggled to a score of 132, less than half the 267 to which they had joyously motored just 48 hours previously. And though the home side’s response was anything but overwhelming, neither was the result ever in significant doubt.
“We’ve had some high-scoring games, but the last game was almost the complete opposite of what happened here,” Reece Topley said. “We were probably just under par with the first-innings score but with the ball we were excellent, pushed them right to the end. I think it’s been an amazing series. Both teams have played some unbelievable cricket. I was so excited turning up today, because it was basically a final and those are the games you want to play in and be on the right side of. The bottom line is you want to win this series, I want to win every series I can for England.”
Often there is a sense as a tour enters its final days of thoughts turning to home, and perhaps the focus was not as laser-sharp as it might have been for this game, determination less than absolute to grasp this opportunity to end England’s run of reverses in the Caribbean. Whatever the reason, the pyrotechnics that rocketed England to victory in the two previous matches never sparked in this one. It took a fabulous delivery from Gudakesh Motie to end Phil Salt’s run of absurd form with his score a modest 38, but some of the other wickets that fell during the period that defined England’s innings and the game seemed a little careless.
In the fourth over Jos Buttler casually turned a Jason Holder delivery to fine leg, where Oshane Thomas was positioned, hands cupped. Harry Brook tried to paddle-sweep Motie but sent the ball only a few feet into the air, giving Nicholas Pooran an easy catch. That made it 70 for four and the game was one ball into its ninth over, at which point Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali had to focus for a while on disaster prevention rather than entertainment.
Suddenly bowlers were energised by the prospect of posting, for a change, less-than-humiliating figures. Akeal Hosein’s were outstanding, his four overs going for just 20 and bringing the wickets of Will Jacks and Moeen, undone by a relay catch on the boundary after combining with Livingstone to add 40 for the fifth wicket. Livingstone followed precisely two overs later, prodding the ball limply back into the hands of Motie, at which point things really fell apart, the last five wickets surrendered in 20 balls for just 11 runs.
Just as surely as when they came out on Tuesday facing an almost unachievable task, the outcome of the West Indies’ run chase seemed inevitable from the start. With such a meagre target they needed little more than to keep their heads, and though both Topley and Sam Curran conceded only two with their final overs to push the contest into its final over, that never looked in doubt.
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Halfway through their innings they were 62 for three, and if England had 15 more runs at the same point they had also made a complete hash of the rest of it. That was a trap which, thanks to Hope’s 43-ball 43 as he again steered his side to their target, West Indies avoided. This batting display may have lacked their usual flamboyance but until the final ball it was entirely appropriate for the occasion.
Amid the wider theme of transformation Adil Rashid’s excellence remains constant. The 35-year-old, who rose to the top of the T20 bowling rankings for the first time on Wednesday, took two wickets and conceded just 21 while Topley was even better, also claiming a pair of victims but conceding only 17. England take plenty of positives from this series, but the result was not one.
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