Series levelled, confidence boosted, crisis averted. England felt they had won nine-tenths of the opening game against West Indies only to see it stolen from them by an electrifying late surge. Here, though, they added that extra 10%, dominating from first to last to win by six wickets and travel to Barbados for the final one‑day international on Saturday in high spirits – and not just because they are about to get significantly improved access to golf courses.
Sam Curran, remorselessly punished in Sunday’s series opener, returned to form with three top-order wickets, Liam Livingstone took three of his own to derail a West Indies fightback, Will Jacks was the game’s top scorer with 73 and most importantly Jos Buttler got his first half-century in 14 innings, during a 90-run fifth-wicket partnership with Harry Brook that carried England to victory with 103 balls to spare. “We just want to see everyone do really well,” said Curran. “We’ve had a tough couple of months, there’s no hiding from that, but we take a lot of happiness out of our teammates doing well, especially our captain. We were pretty close to that perfect game today.”
