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Evin Lewis fireworks, Gudakesh Motie four-for power West Indies to huge win
Gudakesh Motie claimed four wickets including Liam Livingstone. (Getty Images) (Evin Lewis fireworks, Gudakesh Motie four-for power West Indies to huge win)
ESPNcricinfo – The only way is up as England seek to reboot their once-glorious white-ball fortunes, but on the evidence of a deeply one-sided first ODI against West Indies, the journey to the 2027 World Cup will be long, arduous and – perhaps most significantly – unfamiliar to a new generation of cricketers whose unfamiliarity with the rhythms of 50-over cricket was all too plain to see in Antigua.
Those rhythms weren’t quite such a mystery to the man who gunned them down, however. Evin Lewis had been absent from West Indies’ ODI plans for more than three years until last weekend, when he announced his second coming with a 61-ball century in Sri Lanka. Now he added a startlingly violent 94 from 69 balls, making light of a two-paced pitch and a stodgy outfield to blaze eight sixes – one for each of the wickets by which his team eventually won. It might even have been nine for nine had he connected properly with the shot that got him out, an inside-out slap to wide long-off, with victory already in the bag.
Evin Lewis pulls to the leg side. (Getty Images)
The result had scarcely been in doubt after Gudakesh Motie’s four-wicket haul had wrecked England’s hopes of a competitive total, but the only real challenge to West Indies’ dominance was the rain, which arrived at the end of the 15th over of their chase to briefly raise the prospect of a very unjust washout. West Indies were 81 for 0 by that point – with Lewis himself on 51 – but after an hour-long delay and the loss of 15 overs and 53 runs from the target, the skies cleared sufficiently for justice to be served on a red-raw England line-up featuring no fewer than four debutants.
Evin Lewis and Brandon King got West Indies off to a strong start. (Getty Images)
The power and poise of the run-chase was at total odds with the tentative fare that had preceded it. Whereas England had had to wait until the 32nd over of their innings before their stand-in captain Liam Livingstone struck the first of their two sixes on the night, Lewis himself outdid that tally four-fold, having waited just 11 deliveries before hoisting the lively pace of John Turner over the ropes at deep backward square.
Even when Adil Rashid did him in flight in his second over, Lewis’ commitment to the aggressive option allowed him to find enough hang-time to leave deep midwicket sprawling for his fifth six in the space of 13 overs. He then followed that up by whipping Sam Curran through backward square for his first four of the night, and after bringing up his fifty from 46 balls, he jogged through for one more single before the rain break to reach his 2000th ODI run.
Liam Livingstone found some traction for England on a tricky surface. (Getty Images) (Evin Lewis fireworks, Gudakesh Motie four-for power West Indies to huge win)
Lewis’ sidekick Brandon King offered a more earthbound assessment of the tricky batting conditions, grinding along to 30 from 56 balls as Jofra Archer and Turner, making his long-awaited international bow, repeatedly harassed his outside edge in a lively but unrewarded powerplay gambit. King’s torturous stay might have ended in the first over after the rain delay, but Livingstone’s half-tracker lbw was found to have pitched outside leg. Instead, he fell to perhaps his most emphatic shot of the night – a full-blooded full through a Jacob Bethell long-hop that picked out deep square leg to end a 118-run opening stand.
The damage, however, had long since been done, however, leaving Keacy Carty and Shai Hope to wrap up victory with 24.1 overs of their original allocation left unused. Even allowing for the absence of so many key personnel through injury and Test commitments, England’s shortcomings had been glaring in the extreme.
Scores: West Indies 157 for 2 (Lewis 94) beat England 209 (Livingstone 48, Motie 4-41) by eight wickets (DLS).
(Evin Lewis fireworks, Gudakesh Motie four-for power West Indies to huge win)
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