England hoped to use this tour to get into a groove before next year’s T20 World Cup, and instead they find themselves in a trough. There have been encouraging signs, moments of individual excellence, but increasingly the one thing this team seems really good at is losing. On a beautiful afternoon in Grenada they ambled to their latest reverse, and having already lost the ODI series they find themselves two down in the T20s, with three to play.
This was a match of 40 overs in effect decided by one, when Sam Curran leaked 30 to boost West Indies’ score to a level that in the end the tourists could not reach. In a game that highlighted the yin and the yang of Curran it was also he who contributed most to England’s response, top-scoring with 50 after being thrust up the order to four. But despite, and because of, his efforts England never looked likely to better West Indies’ total of 176 and even after plundering 17 off the final over they fell 10 short.
