A new-look England have fallen to a crushing defeat in the first match of their Caribbean tour, as the West Indies secured an eight-wicket victory in Antigua.
A poor batting display proved fatal to England’s chances of starting their latest white-ball regeneration with a win, as the tourists lost their final six wickets for 44 runs to be bowled out for 209.
In the field, England’s attitude couldn’t be faulted, but their results could. Jofra Archer and debutant John Turner looked threatening with the new ball, but West Indies opener Evin Lewis was in sparkling form, striking eight sixes in a match-turning innings of 94 off 69 deliveries as the hosts sailed to their revised 157-run target.
The tourists named four debutants in their XI, as Jordan Cox, Dan Mousley, Jamie Overton joined Turner in making their bow in the ODI format.
In his first act as captain, Liam Livingstone lost a crucial toss. In muggy, overcast conditions, with the added threat of rain hanging over the match – which later arrived and reduced the West Indies’ chase to 35 overs – Shai Hope opted to bowl.
The first 10 overs were a sign of things to come. Both Phil Salt and Will Jacks struggled for their usual fluency as a sticky wicket made stroke play difficult. Salt was the first to depart when the ball didn’t come on as hoped and he was well caught by Alzarri Joseph running backwards at mid-off.
But if at first you don’t succeed, try, fail, and fail again. All of Jacks, Cox, Jacob Bethell and Livingstone fell in similar fashion. Looking to force an attacking shot as the ball slowed in the wicket more than expected, each batter miscued to a fielder inside the 30-yard circle.
Livingstone, to his credit, looked fluent for his 48, as the captain and Sam Curran added 72 runs for the fifth wicket. But after Livingstone chipped back to the excellent Gudakesh Motie, who claimed four for 41, the collapse came. Motie soon struck twice in two balls to remove Mousley and then Overton for a golden duck on debut.
“I don’t think we read conditions quite as well as we could have,” Livingstone said. “When me and Sam were in, we were on for 240-250, which if conditions didn’t change would have been a challenging total.
“We’ve got to get up to speed as quickly as possible. We’ve had a few weeks off, [we have to] try to get into the rhythms of 50-over cricket as quickly as we can. We had four debuts and they’ll have learnt a hell of a lot from what they experienced and hopefully they’ll come on from that.”
The result is a familiar tale for England in this part of the world. This is their fifth trip to the Caribbean in the past three years and they have lost all of the previous four series.
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But England’s failure with the bat wasn’t all their own doing. Motie, an understated left-arm spinner, is quietly building a body of work that pushes him towards elite company. Across 17 ODIs, he has taken 30 wickets at an average of 18.8 and with an economy rate of 3.96, even as 11 of those fixtures have been against India, Australia and England.
Jayden Seales also stood out after taking the new ball and finished with two for 22. The 23-year-old seamer impressed at Sussex this summer and is one of several exciting talents from the Caribbean now coming of age. His opening five-over spell was high-quality pace bowling that conceded just eight runs and accounted for both Salt and Jacks.
Lewis hammered the final nail into England’s coffin. The maverick Trinidadian opener has rarely been seen over the last three years, playing just three T20s in that time until returning for the West Indies’ tour of Sri Lanka a fortnight ago.
In his first ODI since 2021, Lewis made 102 not out from 60 balls in Pallekele, before following it up with a magnificent innings against England. The 32-year-old struck eight sixes with only five fours, and lifted Turner for two sixes that sailed over the party stand at square leg, before check-driving Archer over mid-on in a show of real quality.
Livingstone and Adil Rashid would go on to dismiss Brandon King and Lewis respectively to ensure their side didn’t go down by 10 wickets, but it was an altogether chastening day for England’s latest new-era of white-ball cricket.