Inexperienced England fall to West Indies by eight wickets in Antigua

England’s inexperience was ruthlessly exploited as a sloppy batting display lay at the root of an eight-wicket thrashing by the West Indies in their series-opening ODI in Antigua.
With captain Jos Buttler out injured and several Test stars unavailable, England gave debuts to Jordan Cox, Dan Mousley, Jamie Overton and John Turner but they were all out for an anaemic 209 in 45.1 overs.
All of the top-six reached double figures but contributed to their own demise, unable to battle through tricky conditions where timing was an issue, with Liam Livingstone’s 48 off 49 balls their top score.
The demise of Livingstone, captaining England for the first time, after a restorative 72-run stand in 84 balls with Sam Curran (37 off 56) led to the tourists losing their last six wickets for 44 runs.
Gudakesh Motie took four of them in 15 balls, starting when Livingstone limply poked a return catch to the slow left-armer, who snared Mousley and Overton with successive deliveries before Curran holed out.
After a 90-minute rain delay between innings, the Windies reached 81 for none in 15 overs before another downpour.
When play resumed, Evin Lewis’ magnificent 94 off 69 deliveries helped them chase an adjusted target of 157 in 35 overs with 55 balls to spare to draw first blood in the three-match series.
Turner initially caused problems, with his first delivery in international cricket thudding into the elbow of Brandon King, who was frequently challenged on both edges by the England rookie.
But Lewis was irresistible, pummelling sixes at will – seven of his eight were in the arc between long-on and long leg, with one hit off Adil Rashid going the distance despite having one hand off his bat.
Batting might have seemed a fraction easier under lights but Lewis demonstrated his class, having returned to the ODI fold after three years out last weekend with an unbeaten century in Sri Lanka.
After a shower and another hour-long delay, Lewis took 14 runs in four balls off Rashid on a rare off-day for the leg-spinner before Livingstone made the breakthrough when King pulled a drag down to Jacks on the boundary for 30.
As the Windies crept towards victory, the only question was whether Lewis would reach three figures, but with 13 needed and going for the one big hit to get him to three figures, he directed Rashid to long-on.
It mattered little as his belligerent innings underpinned a commanding win for a side who will not be at next year’s Champions Trophy and are instead looking at qualification for the 2027 World Cup.
They were perhaps given a helping hand by winning the toss, with England struggling to get to grips with a sluggish surface.
Despite bringing in a quartet of new players, Michael Pepper was kept waiting for his ODI debut and a dream top-order partnership for headline writers with Phil Salt, who instead opened with Jacks.
England’s openers were solid if unspectacular, each taking two fours in an over off Matthew Forde but struggling to pierce the infield off Jayden Seales, who conceded just eight from his five-over burst.
His unerring accuracy also drew false shots. Salt, who averaged 19.2 last month against Australia, once again failed to get out of the powerplay as, on 18, he skied high and Alzarri Joseph took a fine catch running back and Gudakesh Motie held on at the second attempt when Jacks miscued up in the air on 19.
Cox took 11 off his first 14 balls but collected six off his next 17, losing patience and skewing the last to Keacy Carty, and while Jacob Bethell showed another glimpse of his talent with three fours in an over off Alzarri Joseph, he got a leading edge to a pull to depart for 27.
With 100 not yet up, senior all-rounders Livingstone and Curran initially accumulated in low-risk fashion, with wily off-spinner Roston Chase conceding just 27 from his first eight overs.
Livingstone cast off the shackles with sixes in each of Chase’s last two overs and was put down on 44 by Shimron Hetmyer at short midwicket, but he failed to capitalise by falling in tame fashion five balls later as Motie got to work.
England unravelled quickly from that point and only a couple of trademark wristy whips from Adil Rashid got them beyond 200 but it was not enough to stop them sliding to a 12th defeat in their last 18 ODIs.