- West Indies completed a momentus run-chase to defeat England in St Lucia
- Back-to-back sixes from Sherfane Rutherford sealed the victory for the hosts
England had the tables turned on them in spectacular fashion on Saturday night as their white-ball tour of the Caribbean continued to be dictated by a toss of the coin.
West Indies made it seven successful chases out of seven here as a visiting attack resting its two senior bowlers in Adil Rashid and Jofra Archer was brutally blitzed.
A surface slicked once the floodlights came on and the dew dropped left England groping in the dark for solutions despite them posting 218 for five after Rovman Powell, with a punch of the air, asked them to bat in the penultimate match of the Twenty20 series.
Only once before had West Indies scored more in the second innings of a T20 international; their previous record chase on home soil was 192.
And they stumbled out of the blocks too, conceding a maiden to Saqib Mahmood, the leading wicket-taker in the series, in the second over.
Despite this, they enjoyed their most successful power play of the series, surging to 69 without loss with strokes of breathtaking power and precision.
It was Shai Hope, who led the charge, reaching his 50 off 23 and then admiring the hitting range of opening partner Evin Lewis, who launched one blow 105 metres.
Such was their dominance that the Windies were not overly inconvenienced by losing the pair as the first two dismissals of a team hat-trick with the score on 136 in the 10th over. It included two off leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed’s three wickets.
And there was a full over left unused when Sherfane Rutherford completed the five-wicket win, levelling up the six count at 16-16 with consecutive blows off Dan Mousley.
Five of England’s came from the blade of Jacob Bethell, who struck an unbeaten 62, his highest international score. Three in a row of Roston Chase took him to a 22-ball 50.
Not for the first time, the tone was set by Phil Salt, whose strike rate of 165.66 is second only to India’s Suryakumar Yadav amongst batters from Test nations. This time, he blazed 55 off 35 deliveries, frustratingly succumbing to an ugly leg-side strangle off Chase.
In the previous match here, West Indies spinners out-bowled their English counterparts, and almost stole the game against the head, returning combined figures of 10-0-60-5.
On this occasion, though, England’s nifty footwork – either coming down the pitch or rocking right back in the crease – did not let them settle, resulting in Akeal Hosein, Gudakesh Motie and Chase leaking 127 between them. But it was not enough to stop the hosts reducing the scoreline to 3-1 ahead of Sunday’s final contest.
