The English fielders held their nerves to win a spectacular match that went down the wire with both teams amassing massive runs on Wednesday.
When Jason Holder won the toss and elected to chase, he couldn’t have imagined the extent to which the English batsmen were going to exploit his ill-advised decision. Jonny Bairstow and Alex Hales started the innings in explosive fashion and England cruised to 100 in the first 82 balls. After Bairstow fell in the 14th over, Joe Root suffered a rare failure when he was caught behind by Shai Hope at 5.
Skipper Eoin Morgan joined the proceedings and batted patiently alongside Hales to get England to 165, half-way through the innings. The day went from bad to worse for the West Indies when Jos Buttler walked in to replace Hales, who was dismissed at 82. Buttler and Morgan plundered the Windies for 204 runs in the next 20 overs. There were 13 fours and 12 sixes in Buttler’s 150 that came off just 77 balls.
As the chase commenced, Chris Gayle and John Campbell took the offensive immediately, realising the magnitude of the towering target of 419. Campbell was caught at 15 by Root and Buttler took an edge from Hope soon after. At the other end, Gayle proved that age is just a number and clobbered the English bowlers for 11 fours and 14 sixes as he raced to 162 before being bowled over by Ben Stokes.
Though Carlos Brathwaite and Ashley Nurse kept the game alive with their partnership, Adil Rashid’s late burst cut the 2nd innings short in its 48th over. The Windies were behind by just 29 runs at the end of a match that saw 807 runs scored in total. With England leading the series 2-1, the hosts must win the next encounter at St Lucia to save the series on Saturday.
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