England clinches eight-wicket victory
SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND— The sun appeared after a week of gloom and shined on England, giving the World Cup hosts perfect batting conditions to chase down a meagre West Indies target and clinch an eight-wicket win with almost 17 overs to spare on Friday.
Joe Root was able to get on the front foot to nullify any threat of an expected barrage from the West Indies pace attack and scored an unbeaten century to guide England to 213-2 in reply to 212.
Root also took two wickets — both caught-and-bowled — and Barbados-born Jofra Archer took 3-30 after England skipper Eoin Morgan won the toss and gave his bowlers advantage of the early cold, overcast conditions by sending West Indies in to bat.
“I think as a whole today, we were brilliant,” Morgan said. “Joe has had an absolute day out. He’s the glue that holds everything together.”
For a change there were no rain interruptions after bad weather plagued the tournament earlier in the week, causing three games to be washed out.
While the weather report was OK, the news wasn’t entirely good for England. Morgan hobbled off in the 40th with muscle spasms in his back. And Jason Roy strained his left hamstring while fielding in the eighth over and didn’t re-enter the game. Morgan said Roy would have scans on the hamstring. Both players were to be reassessed within 48 hours.
Roy wouldn’t have been allowed to bat any higher than No. 7 as a result, anyway, and that gave Chris Woakes a chance to bat up the order in the reshuffle.
Root scored 100 off 94 balls, his second century of the tournament, to become the leading scorer in the World Cup so far. He shared a 95-run stand with Jonny Bairstow (45) and combined with Woakes (40) in a 104-run second-wicket partnership. Shannon Gabriel took both wickets.
Top-ranked England now has three wins and a loss in the tournament and next plays Afghanistan in Manchester. West Indies has now lost two and had to share the points with South Africa in a washout here earlier this week. West Indies will next face Bangladesh on Monday.