England’s one-day woes continued with Jos Buttler’s side slumping to series defeat against West Indies last night.
A tight, low-scoring and rain affected game saw a stuttering batting effort from England reach 206-9, a total revised down to 188 in 34 overs after rain. West Indies reached them to win by four wickets with 14 balls to spare.
Despite the low bar England set Buttler will cling to the positives that they put themselves into pole position after Will Jacks punctured West Indies tyres with his one day best bowling figures of 3-22.
When he finished West Indies, who had looked in complete control at 78-1 only to slump to 135-6, needed 33 from the final 24 balls with four wickets remaining.
Yet charged with keeping up the pressure Gus Atkinson had a shocker, mauled for a match-turning 24 runs in the 31st over which allowed Romario Shepherd and debutant Matthew Forde to bring home the win.
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“We were a few short with the bat but it was a really good effort with the ball, the spinners brought us back into the game,” said Buttler.
“But it’s the start of a long journey for these guys, hopefully we can build something for the future. I’m looking forward to the change of format, and a good T20 series against a good side."
Victory delivered a 2-1 ODI series win for a side who were not good enough to get to the World Cup but have given England problems here before including drawing the last one here 2-2 in 2018-19.
Buttler and a slightly refreshed side can now prepare to face the same opposition over five T20s which start here in Barbados on Tuesday.
West Indies players celebrate after taking out Buttler on their way to victory (MI News/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock)For Buttler this has extended the pain from the World Cup campaign – his series ended last night with a golden duck – and it loaded more pressure on coach Matthew Mott.
This was a toss Buttler had not wanted to lose with West Indies having no hesitation in sticking the opposition in and the England captain admitting he would have done the same.
It proved on the money as well as England struggled to time the ball on a wicket with wildly uneven bounce early and then in the second innings the dew making gripping the ball difficult.
England had got off to a terrible start, Forde getting the top three and Harry Brook and Buttler, first ball, following them back to the shed at 49-5. Ben Duckett and Liam Livingstone stemmed the flow throwing down an anchor against spin.
But when the brakes came off, the pair having stretched their partnership to 98 with some much needed boundaries, the wheels went with it. Shepherd removed Duckett chipping tamely to short midwicket and Livingstone rather threw away his wicket trying to smash it over long on.
At 142-7 the all-rounder left the tail plenty to do but decent contributions from Sam Curran down, including a 35 run partnership for the last wicket between Atkinson and Matthew Potts allowed England to creep to 206-9 from 40 overs.
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That target was reduced to 188 from 34 overs by another burst of rain which appeared to do Buttler’s men a favour.
An early wicket from Atkinson in the second over of the innings delivered early hope but 45 from opener Alick Athanaze and the steady hand of Keacy Carty who top scored with 50, kept England at bay for just long enough.
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