The West Indies opened their home series against England with a win by eight wickets in the first One Day International on Thursday. It was their sixth win in the last seven games played at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Grounds in North Sound, Antigua & Barbuda.
Guyanese left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie led the destruction, as the visitors were dismissed for 209, lasting just 45.1 overs. It was their second lowest total this calendar year.
The Three Lions included four debutants. Jordan Cox, Jamie Overton, Dan Mousley, and John Turner were all handed their first caps in this format, as the tourists continue to struggle with a fixture crunch, compounded by injuries to key players.
Motie picked up where he left off last year against this same opposition, dooming them to ODI and T20I losses on their last tour of the region. On this occasion, he took 4-41 from his 10 overs, receiving excellent support from the pace trio of Jayden Seales, Matthew Forde, and Alzarri Joseph.
West Indies captain Shai Hope guessed right at the toss, then asked England to have a bat. Phil Salt and Will Jacks lasted just over eight overs, before Seales had the former caught for 18 off 29 balls, the first of his two wickets.
Jacks fell two overs later to the same bowler, out for 19, and the score 46-2 in the 11th over. Seales ended with the very economical figures of 2-22 off eight. Brought back in at the death, he took no more wickets, but yielded few runs.
Cox, the debutant, and Barbados-born Jacob Bethell contrived a minor recovery, taking the score to 86 before Cox was dismissed by Forde for 17.
Again, the partnership broken, the now senior batsman soon found himself back in the pavilion as well. Bethell hit three fours in his knock of 27 off 33 balls, before becoming Forde’s second victim. Forde ended with 2-48 from nine overs.
Sam Curran and stand-in captain Liam Livingstone built nicely through the middle overs, Livingstone going at nearly a run-a-ball for his 48, inclusive of three fours and two sixes, before going caught and bowled Motie.
Livingstone and Curran added 72 to the total, with the score 165-5 in the 35th over, after the departure of the skipper.
Debutants Mousley and Overton had little to add to the score, spurning the decent platform laid by the top order. Mousley made eight off 12 balls before his dismissal by Motie. Overton, became the first England debutant dismissed for a golden duck since Gareth Batty in 2002, as he went leg before wicket to the Guyanese tweaker.
Motie also ended Curran’s resistance at 37, a patient knock that saw him soaking up 56 balls, and hitting the ropes just twice.
Well into the tail, with the score 187-8, and just under 10 overs to face, England lost their last two wickets within 30 balls, and for just over 20 runs. Joseph cleaned up Adil Rashid for 15, and Jofra Archer for seven, leaving Turner not out two.
West Indies’ hopes of a swift chase were dampened by a mid-innings downpour, which delayed the resumption. A further rain delay during the West Indies reply led to an adjusted target, as the home team were asked to make 127 in 35 overs.
Evin Lewis, back in the side after three years, got a 61-ball hundred just six days ago and two continents away in Sri Lanka. By the 10th over, he and opening partner Brandon King had the hosts ahead of the run-rate, 49 without loss, Lewis on 27 from 30 balls, having thrice cleared the boundaries.
Two more sixes and a four had Lewis one run away from a half-century. He duly reached that milestone two balls later off the 46th ball he faced. It was the 10th 50 in 55 ODI innings for the 32-year-old, to go with five centuries.
The second rain interruption came just after the end of the 15th over, with West Indies well ahead. Shortly after 9 p.m. the West Indies were given their revised target, which left them the relatively soft task of getting 76 runs from 120 balls.
Lewis resumed his assault, pummelling Rashid for a six and two fours in the 17th over, Rashid’s fourth, conceding 17 after King ran three from the first ball.
Bethell’s first over of left-arm spin received similar treatment, going for 12, including a seventh six from Lewis. Brandon King’s dismissal to Livingstone for 30 off 56 balls was almost academic, so much on top of the game was Lewis.
He hit Livingstone for another four, and Rashid for an eighth six behind square leg, before finally giving up his wicket.
The West Indies needed just 13 at that stage, with 75 balls remaining, and Lewis six runs from 100, when he sliced a delivery from Rashid to Bethell. Lewis faced only 69 balls.
Keacy Carty was not out 19 and Shai Hope unbeaten on six as the West Indies saw the match out and took a 1-0 lead thanks to impressive all-round performances with ball and bat.
The second ODI of three is on Saturday at the same venue, and West Indies have a chance to seal the series.
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