TAROUBA: Shai Hope’s unbeaten 43 led West Indies to a four wicket victory over England and secured a 3-2 Twenty20 series win in a tense encounter.

England were bowled out for 132 in the decider and while West Indies never got into their rhythm, Hope held their reply together and then won the game with a powerful six over extra-cover off the second ball of the final over.

The win is the third straight T20 international series win for West Indies in 2023 as they prepare to host the Wo­rld Cup for the shortest format in June.

It was a disappointing end to the mini-tour for Jos Buttler’s England side, who had also lost the 50-over series in the Caribbean 2-1.

The low-scoring contest was in marked contrast to Tuesday’s game where England scored a team-record 267 but with conditions helping the bowlers, West Indies were able to add to their T20I series wins over South Africa and India.

The hosts went into the last over chasing nine runs to win but Jason Holder secured three off Chris Woakes’ first delivery and Hope then smashed the rest off the next ball.

Sam Curran had given England a chance in the previous over, giving aw­ay only two runs and taking a wicket.

“It was closer than we thought at the end today, yes. We kept losing key wickets but we always knew Shai Hope was going to be the important man on this pitch,” said West Indies captain Rovman Powell.

England were all out for 132 with three deliveries to spare after a late collapse to some stunning bowling and fielding by the home side.

Opener Phil Salt, who smashed 119 off 57 balls at the same ground on Tuesday to square the series, was bowled by man-of-the-match Gudakesh Motie (3-24) for a top score of 38 immediately after hitting a six as the visitors slumped to 60-3.

England skipper Buttler had already gone for 11, caught by Oshane Thomas off Holder.

Salt’s score took his series tally to 331 runs from five innings but England’s batting lacked the heft of the previous match in which they belted 19 sixes.

England were 109-4 after 14 overs but then slumped as the West Indies’ spinners went to work.

Liam Livingston threatened with a swift 28 before he was caught and bowled by Motie and Moeen Ali was also aggressive before he was caught by a teamwork catch with Andre Russell throwing the ball to skipper Powell as he headed towards the boundary rope.

Russell was on for a hat-trick in the penultimate over when he took Woakes and Rehan Ahmed with successive balls and England were bowled out with three balls remaining of their 20 overs when Sam Curran was caught by Sherfane Rutherford off Holder.

The home side’s reply got off to a flying start with 20 off the first two overs before Brandon King was removed by Reece Topley and when Woakes bowled Nichola Pooran there was hope for England.

But Rutherford (30) put on a 41 run partnership with Hope that stabilised the innings only for England to apply some late pressure after Rashid rem­oved Rutherford and then Powell was dismissed by Topley in the 17th over.

Buttler said England had paid the price for trying to force their shots early in their innings.

“We probably didn’t quite manage to adapt quickly enough. I thought 160 would have been a decent score to try and defend. [Then] we needed wickets to try to win the game and I thought we did well to hang in as long as we did,” he said.

“If we would have had a few more runs to play with, we could have put a bit more pressure on the opposition but I thought it was a really good effort with the ball.”

SCOREBOARD

ENGLAND:

P. Salt b Motie 38

J. Buttler c Thomas b Holder 11

W. Jacks b Hosein 7

L. Livingstone c&b Motie 28

H. Brook c Pooran b Motie 7

M. Ali c Powell b Hosein 23

S. Curran c Rutherford b Holder 12

C. Woakes b Russell 2

R. Ahmed c&b Russell 0

A. Rashid run out 1

EXTRAS: (LB-3) 3

TOTAL (all out, 19.3 overs) 132

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-24 (Buttler), 2-39 (Jacks), 3-60 (Salt), 4-70 (Brook), 5-110 (Ali), 6-121 (Livingstone), 7-125 (Woakes), 8-125 (Ahmed), 9-132 (Rashid)

DID NOT BAT: R. Topley

BOWLING: Russell 4-0-25-2, Thomas 4-0-36-0, Hosein 4-0-20-2, Holder 3.3-0-24-2, Motie 4-0-24-3

WEST INDIES:

B. King c Buttler b Topley 3

J. Charles c Buttler b Rashid 27

N. Pooran b Woakes 10

S. Hope not out 43

S. Rutherford c Curran b Rashid 30

R. Powell c Rashid b Topley 8

A. Russell c Livingstone b Curran 3

J. Holder not out 4

EXTRAS: (LB-5) 5

TOTAL (for six wickets, 19.2 overs) 133

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-20 (King), 2-33 (Pooran), 3-54 (Charles), 4-95 (Rutherford), 5-113 (Powell), 6-123 (Russell)

DID NOT BAT: A. Hosein, G. Motie, O. Thomas

BOWLING: Topley 4-0-17-2, Woakes 3.2-0-28-1, Ahmed 4-0-36-0, Rashid 4-0-21-2, Ali 2-0-13-0, Curran 2-0-13-1

PLAYER-OF-THE-MATCH: Gudakesh Motie

PLAYER-OF-THE-SERIES: Phil Salt

SERIES: West Indies won the five-match series 3-2.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2023