Gayle crushes sorry England
Gayle-force Windies snatch a share of the series but most of all expose the tourists for the brittle side that they are
ENGLAND blew their chance of a 10th one-day series win in a row when they were skittled for 113 by West Indies in the final match in St Lucia.
The World Cup favourites were beaten by three wickets, with Chris Gayle hitting 77 off 27 balls, and skipper Eoin Morgan said: ‘It’s very important we keep learning.’
IT IS the word that makes South Africans grimace when used to describe their cricket but it is one England must beware when expectations will be at their most intense this summer during the World Cup. For yesterday, with a series on the line, they again seemed to ‘choke’. That is the only way to describe a miserable batting performance that saw England crash to 113 all out in the final one-dayer with an array of brainless shots on a pitch that offered West Indies pace and, most significantly, extra bounce.
And ‘ choking’ will perhaps be England’ s biggest worry this summer when they will enter that home World Cup still ranked as the best one-day side in the world and with the tag of firm favourites hanging uncomfortably over them.
England looked anything but the best team around yesterday in the last 50-over game before they must name that squad for their home cup on April 23, crashing to their worst one-day score against West Indies just three days after smashing them for 418.
The last time England were as bad as this in the Caribbean, when they were dismissed for 114 in 1986, West Indies had Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Michael Holding and Patrick Patterson in their ranks.
This may be a resurgent West Indies but they are nowhere near the class of that little lot.
This was the worst England oneday batting performance since they plumbed new 50-over depths in the last World Cup against New Zealand when they were bowled out for 123 and Brendon McCullum embarrassed them by chasing it down within 13 overs.
And there were echo es of McCullum in the way Chris Gayle — who else but the Universe Boss? — went about chasing England’s feeble effort with the fastest 50 in Caribbean history off just 19 balls and blasting nine sixes in his 77 as West Indies strolled home even before the scheduled interval in 12.1 overs, one ball fewer than in that defeat by New Zealand.
If Gayle, who did get away with a controversial no-ball dismissal off Chris Woakes, really is to retire from 50- over cricket after the World Cup, hitting 39 sixes in this series — an ODI record — has been a fitting way for him to depart the home stage. If the contrast in England’s batting from Grenada to here does not make sense then it should be viewed in the worrying context of England always seemingly having an awful performance up their sleeves just when you think they are on the verge of greatness.
Here they had a golden opportunity to make a little history by equalling Australia’s world record and wrapping up their 10 th successive 50-over series victory but they blew it.
Since they stank out the last World Cup four years ago and went back to the white- ball drawing board England have faced eight 50-over deciders, knockout matches or one-off games like their visit to Scotland last summer and have lost four of them.
They also snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the World Twenty20 final against West Indies in 2016 when Carlos Brathwaite hit
Ben Stokes for four successive sixes in the last over and, with perhaps the biggest ‘choke’ of the lot, surrendered their home Champions Trophy semi-final the following year against the lowest ranked team in the tournament in Pakistan. This was right up there.
Remember, West Indies are ranked a miserable ninth in the world and reached this year’s World Cup at the expense of a desperately unlucky Scotland in a qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe. But here they earned a thoroughly deserved share of this series by humiliating Eoin Morgan’s side.
The problems usually come when they bat first and here England had no game-plan as West Indies won the toss and started to make use of an old-fashioned bouncy pitch.
There was no need for bounce to account for Jonny Bairstow who, other than a half century in the fourth game here, is enduring a barren one-day run. It has become commonplace to see Bairstow clean bowled, quite often with the help of an inside edge.
It was a combination of bounce and brainlessness that did for the rest of England’s batsmen, who showed no stomach for the fight with the imposing Oshane Thomas steaming in at them to take five wickets in just over five overs.
Alex Hales had another chance to put pressure on Bairstow for his World Cup opening place but after shining in Grenada he blew it by falling to the ghost of choking past in Brathwaite. At least east Hales top scored, along ng with Jos Buttler, with h 23 but this was as far away from the pyrotechnics of Grenada, and indeed the first match of this series in Barbados, as it is possible for one- day y batting to be. Talk about out making mugs out of us s all.
There was not even time for Tom Curran, handed a World Cup audition auditi here, to show what he can c do — he was out second on ball and bowled just one o delivery, which went for four to end the match. The elder Curran brother will face a more nervous wait than mos tm for that squad announcement an next month. mon There Ther is no little irony in bowlers in the form of Curran and David Willey being more vulnerable for their places than any of the misfiring batsmen but the fact is the talented 90 mph bowling figure of Jofra Archer is waiting in the wings. However badly England batted here their top seven have credit in the bank so will all survive the World Cup cut but it will surely be difficult for England to ignore the chance to bring another potential game-changer into their squad on the back of this.
England have three pretty meaningless Twenty20 matches here to finish their tour but whatever happens they have now come up well short in the serious Test and one-day business here.
And that makes this tour a triumph for the West Indies.