Bairstow and Roy shine as England wallop the Windies
IT has not been the best of summers for Jason Roy but — unlike one or two of his colleagues — he has ended it with his head held high.
Roy’s recall to England’s one-day side has come about in circumstances he would not have chosen. But with his former opening partner Alex Hales suspended for his part in the Bristol brawl, he has batted like a man renewed.
A century for Jonny Bairstow, his second of the series, was another reminder that you lose your place in this 50-over side at your peril. When Hales eventually returns from purgatory, England will have three world- class openers from which to choose.
But, as the sun set on the longest summer in English cricket history, it was Roy’s destructive 96 from 70 balls that most glaringly caught the eye as Eoin Morgan’s team pursued 289 and a 4-0 win. Throw in the 84 he hit from 66 deliveries at The Oval on Wednesday, and it has been quite a renaissance.
This was a man who couldn’t buy a run earlier in the summer and was dropped for England’s doomed Champions Trophy semi- final against Pakistan. But Roy’s instinctive approach is such that he needs only connect with a couple of crunching straight drives and he is back in the groove.
So it proved here. Only a surpristhat ing misjudgment — playing down the wrong line against Miguel Cummins to end an opening stand of 156 in 21 overs with Bairstow — cost Roy a hundred. But he will be hard to drop now.
Determined not to be outdone, Bairstow finished with a high-class 141 not out from 114 balls — England’s highest one- day score against West Indies — and Joe Root completed the job with a straight six and 12 overs to spare.
This was England’s 25th game of the summer across the three formats — another record — and they have lost only six.
For all the gloom surrounding Ben Stokes and England’s chances in the Ashes, that is a statistic worth celebrating.
West Indies had been given an incendiary start by Chris Gayle, who hit 34 off six balls spread across two overs from Jake Ball. The sequence included five murderous sixes and a one-bounce four over third man, and it needed a well- judged catch by Liam Plunkett to end his fun and give Surrey’s Tom Curran his first one-day international wicket.
Plunkett produced a second piece of athleticism to get rid of Kyle Hope, swooping low to his left off his own bowling, but it was the spin of Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali really held the West Indies innings back.
The pair conceded only 78 in 20 overs as Marlon Samuels concocted a bizarre innings of 32 off 60 balls with a single four. When he finally showed some aggression, it cost him his wicket, Jos Buttler completing a straightforward stumping off Moeen. Perhaps he needs Stokes in the opposition to get his juices going.
Shai Hope made a mature 72 before a flurry from Ashley Nurse lifted West Indies to 288 for six, though that was little better than par on a belting surface.
Even so, Ball was left nursing figures of one for 94, the third-most expensive one- day analysis for England, behind the 97 conceded by both Steve Harmison and Chris Jordan.