West Indies could not have a place in the recently concluded ODI World Cup on Indian soil. The two-time world champions failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in the history of cricket. So, the series against England is a fresh start for the Caribbeans. On the other hand, for England, another former champion, the series is to forget the World Cup failure and turn around. However, in the first ODI of the series, West Indies walked through the right path.
Hosts West Indies beat England by 4 wickets in the first match of the three-match ODI series at the Sir Viv Richards Stadium in Antigua on Saturday (December 3). Captain Shai Hope was the hero of the West Indies’ victory with a brilliant century.
England won the toss and decided to bat first in North Sound. The visitors made a good start with the opening pair of Philip Salt and Will Jacks. 77 runs were added to the scorecard before Philip lost his wicket on the second ball of the ninth over. Philip became a victim of Gudakesh Moti after playing a stormy innings of 45 runs off 28 balls. He played this innings with 5 fours and 3 sixes.
In the next over before any runs were added, Jacks was caught behind the wicket by Alzarri Joseph. He scored 26 runs off 24 balls with 3 fours and 1 six. New batsmen Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett added 33 runs for the fourth wicket partnership. Duckett (20) was bowled by Yannic Cariah in the 16th over. Crawley made a partnership of 71 runs with Harry Brook who came to the wicket after Ducket’s departure. He was run out after scoring 48 runs off 63 balls hitting 5 fours.
Captain Jos Buttler became Moti’s second victim as 10 more runs were added to the scoreboard. The English captain scored only 3 runs off 13 balls. Liam Livingstone (17) was bowled lbw by Romario Shepherd for the team’s 232 runs. Brook became Shepherd’s second victim adding just 7 runs. However, Brook picked up his half-century before that. He scored 71 runs in 72 balls with 7 fours and 2 sixes.
Then Sam Curran and Brydon Carse scored 66 runs from 39 balls in a partnership to take the score to 300 for the English. Curran scored 38 off 26 balls with 3 fours and 2 sixes before being run out. Carse remained unbeaten on 31 off 21 balls with 2 fours and a six. Besides, Rehan Ahmed scored 12 runs and Gus Atkinson scored 4 runs. In the end, England were all out for 325 runs in the last ball of the fiftieth over.
Gudakesh Motie, Romario Shepherd, and Oshane Thomas took 2 wickets each for West Indies. Apart from this, Yannic Cariah and Alzarri Joseph took 1 wicket each.
In response, the Caribbean got off to a fantastic start. They lost their first wicket for 104 runs in the third ball of the 18th over. Alick Athanaze scored an innings of 66 runs off 65 balls smashing 9 fours and 2 sixes and was lbw to Rehan. West Indies struck again in the next over. Another opener, Brandon King scored 35 off 44 balls with 4 fours and 1 six and was bowled by Livingstone.
Keacy Carty was trapped lbw by Carse on the first ball of the 30th over. He scored 16 runs off 39 balls. Skipper Shai Hope then put on a 56-run partnership with Shimron Hetmyer. Atkinson sent off Hetmyer who scored 32 runs in 38.5 overs of the innings. West Indies collected exactly 200 runs. In the next over, Rutherford returned to the dressing room scoring only 6 runs and the Caribbean was in danger.
But Captain Hope was still hopeful. Joining Hope, Shepherd raised a storm on the wicket. The pair added 89 runs off 51 balls. Atkinson trapped Shepherd lbw on the first ball of the 48 over. This all-rounder scored 48 runs off 28 balls hitting 4 fours and 3 sixes.
West Indies still needed 24 runs off 17 balls to win. However, Hope confirmed the victory in the next over bowled by Curran. He scored the 16th century of his ODI career to win the game for his team. Apart from 16 centuries, Hope has 24 fifties in his 119 ODI career. In the end, Hope remained unbeaten smashing 4 fours and 7 sixes, he scored 109 runs from 83 balls.
Rehan Ahmed and Gus Atkinson took 2 wickets each for England. Apart from this, Brydon Carse and Liam Livingstone picked up 1 wicket each.
England – 325/10 (50.0)
West Indies – 326/6 (48.5)
Result – West Indies won by 4 wickets
Player of the match – Shai Hope
Shai Hope
West Indies | Shai Hope (c & wk), Brandon King, Keacy Carty, Shimron Hetmyer, Alick Athanaze, Sherfane Rutherford, Yannic Cariah, Romario Shepherd, Alzarri Joseph, Oshane Thomas, and Gudakesh Motie. |
England | Jos Buttler (c & wk), Philip Salt, Zak Crawley, Will Jacks, Ben Duckett, Sam Curran, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Brydon Carse, Gus Atkinson, and Rehan Ahmed. |
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