A collective bowling performance was followed by a quick-fire 94 off 69 balls from Evin Lewis as West Indies secured a comfortable 8-wicket victory in the rain-hit first ODI against England in Antigua.
Jayden Seales, Matthew Forde and Alzarri Joseph picked up two wickets apiece while Gudakesh Motie bagged four as England were bowled out for 209. Chasing a revised target of 157 in 35 overs, West Indies got the job done in 25.5 overs to take the lead in the three-match ODI series.
After a rain delay before the start of the second innings, Lewis got West Indies going in the chase with sixes off John Turner and Jofra Archer, striking three maximums inside the first 10 overs.
Brandon King struck a few boundaries and provided good support to Lewis as they took West Indies to 54/0 in the first powerplay. Lewis continued his six-hitting, extending the tally to five en route to a 46-ball fifty before it began to rain again and forced the players off the field with West Indies at 81/0 in 15 overs.
While the first interruption didn’t reduce the number of overs, the second one resulted in a revised target. Lewis continued from where he left off, dealing in fours and sixes, including two fours and a six off Adil Rashid in the 17th over that helped West Indies past 100.
The opening stand, worth 118, came to an end when King handed a catch in the deep trying to put away a short ball from Liam Livingstone, departing for 30.
Lewis took his count of sixes to 8 and was looking good for a three-figure score but fell six short of it when he found long-off trying to hit Rashid out of the park. Keacy Carty provided the finishing touches to the chase with an unbeaten 19.
Earlier, after being asked to bat, England’s top-order batters got off to promising starts but weren’t able to capitalise on it. Seales accounted for the wickets of Phil Salt (18) and Will Jacks (19) while Forde dismissed Jordan Cox (17) and Jacob Bethell (27) in quick succession. A 72-run stand between Livingstone and Sam Curran ensued, leading England’s recovery as they tried to post a competitive total. Having scored only 12 off 21, Livingstone picked up pace, and Curran too found the boundaries as they helped England make good progress.
But from 165/4 in the 35th over, England suffered a major collapse as they could add only 44 more and didn’t even bat their full quota of overs, with West Indies wrapping it up in 45.1 overs. The slide started when Livingstone was out caught and bowled off Motie for 48. Dan Mousley and Jamie Overton then fell off successive deliveries to Motie, who also sent Curran back for 37 as England slipped to 187/8. Rashid and Archer led England past 200 before Joseph picked up the last two wickets.
Brief scores: England 209 in 45.1 overs (Liam Livingstone 48, Sam Curran 37; Gudakesh Motie 4-41, Jayden Seales 2-22) lost to West Indies 157/2 in 25.5 overs (Evin Lewis 94, Brandon King 30; Liam Livingstone 1-32) by 8 wickets (DLS method).