West Indies Secures Series Victory Over England with Dominant Performance at Kensington Oval

Twin centuries from Keacy Carty and Brandon King, preceded by fine bowling from homeboys Matthew Forde and Roston Chase helped West Indies clinch their three-match One Day International series against England with an eight-wicket win in the third and decisive rubber on Wednesday at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown.

After splitting their first two fixtures in Antigua & Barbuda, Shai Hope’s men were in a no-nonsense mood from early on, after winning the toss and opting to bowl first. Alzarri Joseph and Romario Shepherd were preferred for the hosts, over Jayden Seales and Shamar Joseph. England omitted Saqib Mahmood and John Turner, and included Reece Topley and Jamie Overton.

With just enough assistance for the seamers plugging away on a good length, West Indies made the best of conditions early on to have England four down and tottering inside the first powerplay.

A dispute between Alzarri Joseph and Hope took a bit of the shine off the early dominance for the home team. The fast bowler appeared unhappy with the field set by his captain, gesticulating and visibly arguing with Hope. Eventually it was the batter who paid, caught behind off a 148kph lifter. Joseph didn’t celebrate and walked off at the end of the over, briefly leaving West Indies with 10 men on the field.

Forde had already struck in his second over, responding to being driven for four by Will Jacks with a similar delivery that went away just enough to take the outside edge.

Shepherd then enjoyed immediate success when replacing Joseph, as Jacob Bethell slashed at a wide delivery only to be spectacularly held by the leaping Chase at point. Back-to-back maidens followed and when stand-in Three Lions Liam Livingstone fell to another catch at the wicket trying to force a drive off Shepherd, England were flatlining at 24-4 with one ball left in the powerplay.

Half-centuries from Phil Salt and Dan Mousley helped England stave off complete collapse. Salt knuckled down to play his longest ODI innings and lift England from peril, before Mousley’s maiden international fifty and some lower-order hitting helped them up to 263-8, a far more challenging total than had seemed likely.

Salt put on consecutive stands of 70 with Sam Curran and Mousley to provide the semblance of a contest. Romario Shepherd caught his studs in the turf at the start of his seventh over and had to be helped from the field, causing further disruption for West Indies, with brisk cameos from Jamie Overton (32 off 21) and Jofra Archer (38 off 17) helping England to add exactly 100 from the last 10 overs.

Crucially, Salt found a proactive partner in Curran, again up the order at six. He showed more fluency than any England batter to come before him, striking Forde and the returning Joseph for boundaries then greeting the introduction of Gudakesh Motie’s left-arm spin with another driven four through the covers.

Motie was again picked off in the 19th as Curran went over the head of mid-off, before Salt began to increase the tempo. His six off Shepherd brought up the 50 stand, and he found the boundary again a few overs later with a flat thrash through backward point. But with both batters in the 40s, Roston Chase conjured the breakthrough – two dot balls enough to goad Curran into trying to go big only to skew a catch to mid-off.

Salt ground away, bringing up a 79-ball half-century – by far the slowest of his five in ODI’s – although he might have fallen shortly after when Chase couldn’t get his fingers under the ball at backward point. At the other end, Mousley, in his third international innings, set about aiding the rebuilding effort. The Warwickshire all-rounder scored his first boundary with a trademark reverse-sweep off Motie before stepping out to deposit Chase over the rope at long-on as the sixth-wicket pair assembled another half-century stand.

England were 163-5 after 40 overs, only to lose Salt to the third ball of the final powerplay. Forde enticed the batsman to hit out to the midwicket boundary, and Brandon King’s brilliant running catch, relayed to Joseph, did the rest.

Shepherd’s injury left the hosts a bowler down at the death, with Hope forced to turn to Sherfane Rutherford, whose 3.5 overs of occasional medium pace ended up costing 57 runs. Mousley brought up his 50, from 64 balls, off the part-timer.

Mousley was caught on the midwicket boundary off Joseph but Overton and Archer swung the bat with gusto through the closing stages – the latter making his highest score for England in any format, skelping Rutherford for four consecutive boundaries (one of which was a no-ball) during a final over that cost 25.

Brandon King and Evin Lewis got the West Indies chase off to an excellent start with 36 runs off the first 36 balls, contributing 15 each. Lewis’ dismissal in the seventh over did little to dampen the mood, as Keacy Carty announced himself with a four off the eighth ball he faced, followed by King hitting Reece Topley for two more boundaries in the same over.

A placid period was briefly punctuated by consecutive Carty fours off Livingstone in the 15th over, keeping West Indies well ahead of the asking rate.

Just at the end of the 20th over, King got to his first ODI 50 since the World Cup Qualifier in July 2023, rocking back and heaving across the line, picking the unguarded boundary at deep midwicket.

Carty, on 30 from 43 balls at the time, hurried to join his senior partner. The first man from Sint Maarten to play cricket for the West Indies, Carty took 18 more balls to get to his fifth ODI half-century.

The 200 for the West Indies was brought up by a King boundary, drilling it through the covers to take his score to 85, and the partnership to 158 at the end of 34 overs. The Men in Maroon needed 63 runs from 96 balls to claim their first ODI series win since beating England in 2023.

Carty was first to 100, off 97 balls, with 11 fours and two sixes, West Indies sitting pretty at 224-1, 40 runs required from 78 balls. King joined him in the next over, and although he added just two after reaching three figures, the job was all but done when he was dismissed at the start of the 41st over.

“We always fight when we are challenged, great to see the guys growing in confidence,” said Hope in his post-match press conference. Declining to comment on the incident with Joseph, the captain added, “”The dominance and discipline were the main thing, doing it consistently, pulling weight, ticking boxes off the field and transferring it on field. Confidence booster especially for the batting unit.”

Matthew Forde was named player of the series, and King player of the match. West Indies and England will now turn their attention to a five-match T20 International series, starting here in Barbados this Saturday.

(ESPNCricinfo)