Inexperienced England fall to West Indies by eight wickets in Antigua

England’s inexperience was ruthlessly exploited as a sloppy batting display lay at the root of an eight-wicket thrashing by the West Indies in their series-opening ODI in Antigua. With captain Jos Buttler out injured and several Test stars unavailable, England gave debuts to Jordan Cox, Dan Mousley, Jamie Overton and John Turner but they were all out for an anaemic 209 in 45.1 overs.

All of the top-six reached double figures but contributed to their own demise, unable to battle through tricky conditions where timing was an issue, with Liam Livingstone’s 48 off 49 balls their top score. The demise of Livingstone, captaining England for the first time, after a restorative 72-run stand in 84 balls with Sam Curran (37 off 56) led to the tourists losing their last six wickets for 44 runs. Gudakesh Motie took four of them in 15 balls, starting when Livingstone limply poked a return catch to the slow left-armer, who snared Mousley and Overton with successive deliveries before Curran holed out.



After a 90-minute rain delay between innings, the Windies reached 81 for none in 15 overs before another downpour. When play resumed, Evin Lewis’ magnificent 94 off 69 deliveries helped them chase an adjusted target of 157 in 35 overs with 55 balls to spare to draw first blood in the three-match series. Turner initially caused problems, with his first delivery in international cricket thudding into the elbow of Brandon King, who was frequently challenged on both edges by the England rook.