- Brandon King and Keacy Carty hit centuries for victorious Windies
- Phil Salt stopped England’s bleeding but it was a dominant win in Barbados
England could find no remedy for their travel sickness at Kensington Oval as the West Indies condemned them to a sixth successive overseas series defeat.
Shai Hope’s West Indians made it a woeful six-piece, spanning all formats and dating back to March last year, as dual centurions Brandon King and Keacy Carty reveled on a dew-slick pitch to take eight wickets and complete a 2-1 victory.
It was sealed with seven unspent overs, but the fate of this illuminated event – a 13th setback in 20 one-day internationals for England – was dictated within the opening hour, courtesy of the loss of four wickets to the new ball .
A full recovery is rarely achieved from such seismic opening blows and although Phil Salt took it upon himself to stem the bleeding, turning out in twin stands of 70 with left-handers Sam Curran and Dan Mousley to give the tourists something to bowl to , the gulf between the tourists and opponents who failed to qualify for next February’s Champions Trophy was put into perspective when England’s powerplay tally of two dozen improved within 15 deliveries of the reply.
England also owed a nod to fortune by scoring 263 for eight after Romario Shepherd’s faceplant in his follow-on forced him out of the action, allowing the tail to revel in Sherfane’s part-time medium pace Rutherford.
West Indies players celebrate with the series trophy after beating England again
Adil Rashid reacts during England’s heavy defeat at Kensington Oval in Barbados
Salt and Mousley holed out for 74 and 57 respectively (the former a victim of King’s agility in a stunning boundary catch), but Rutherford was not spared thereafter as Jofra Archer scored an unbeaten 38 off 17 balls, his score highest in 66 international matches. and Jamie Overton chipped in with an ODI best of 32 off 21. In total, 100 runs were taken from the last 10 overs.
Scoring certainly helped in this period as the floodlight overtook the sunlight and the falling dew accelerated the ball towards the bat.
“The pitch went from being very slow at the start to being absolutely soaked at the end,” England captain Liam Livingstone said.
‘Both balls were soaked. I’ve played a lot of cricket around the world and I don’t think I’ve ever played a game where the conditions have changed so much from one innings to the next. “It’s not an excuse, we didn’t make enough races, but I think even if we had made more, it wouldn’t have mattered.”
Keacy Carly was one of two West Indies players to score a century against England on Wednesday.
In response, England claimed just two wickets, one at each end of the innings for retired Surrey pair Jamie Overton and Reece Topley: the former benefiting from Evin Lewis getting tangled against the short ball for the second time in as many outings and Topley found a way to overcome a tired knock from King with just 13 runs required.
Earlier, when asked to bat first on a wayward delivery, England struggled to score and found themselves at 24 for four after 10 overs.
Not that the West Indies were necessarily a happy camp at that stage either. In an extraordinary passage that followed Jordan Cox’s dismissal for a snort that hit his glove at throat level, successful bowler Alzarri Joseph refused to celebrate and then left the field in anger after completing the over, in response to the field established by Captain Shai Hope. It left the home team temporarily down to 10 men and caused Joseph to be withdrawn from the attack when he returned.
Hope later refused to talk about the incident, saying only, “Things happen.”
England’s horror start ceded the momentum England had carried with them from Antigua, where Livingstone’s coming of age helped level things at 1-1.
West Indies fans applaud from the ‘party stand’ during the third ODI at Bridgetown
But with Salt adopting the anchor role, playing his longest ODI innings in the process, they realigned things in a way they couldn’t when faced with a similar scenario in the first three-match last week.
As well as indulging his tactic of trying to orbit the first ball of a bowler’s new spell, it cost him his wicket in both matches at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, but it worked here when Shepherd was deposited in Joel Garner’s stand for begin. Day 21 ended: Salt was moderation itself.
It was Curran with 40 who was the most aggressive, providing most of the fifth-wicket partnership, and the same was true for Mousley during the sixth.
Mousley’s first half-century in an England shirt followed soon after Salt’s departure, but it was the miserable start rather than an uplifting end to the innings, plus the influence of a ball-saturated outfield, that told him .