England spent much of this game digging themselves into not so much a hole as a full-blown trench, a toxic combination of regular errors and occasional misfortune leaving them in a truly desperate situation, apparently destined for convincing and deserved defeat. EnterJoe Root, and an innings for the ages.
Root produced a display of simply ethereal stroke-making on his way to a stunning, unbeaten 166, a batting performance of such beauty that the ugliness of much that came before will almost be forgotten. It was his highest score in ODIs, propelling him past Eoin Morgan to become England’s leading run-scorer in this format, and the first Englishman to score more than 7,000 runs.
It was the second time Root had played an ODI on 1 June; in the other, seven years earlier, he scored an unbeaten 133, now his second highest score. It ended with a straight drive, a 23rd boundary, victory by three wickets, and a series secured with a game to spare.
As Root guided England home the bowlers searched and strained for a solution, and eventually they cracked: the moment Alzarri Joseph’s wild bouncer cleared a flailing wicketkeeper and ran away to the rope, leaving England within touching distance of victory, felt like a loss of control in more ways than one. A couple of overs later Joseph, those moments apart the finest bowler on either side, did it again.
After Keacy Carty’s hugely impressive century, Shai Hope’s 66-ball 78 and a brilliant start to their efforts in the field West Indies will be asking themselves where, across a blustery day at Sophia Gardens, they were blown off course. Their minds will snag on the final delivery of the sixth over of England’s innings, when Matthew Forde wheeled away in celebration, with arms outstretched and nary a backward glance, after thudding the ball into Root’s back pad.
He had reached the slip cordon by the time he turned back to see an immobile umpire, and the inevitable review showed the ball would have clipped the bails but not with sufficient force for the on-field decision to be reversed. The next delivery, the first of a fresh over, kissed Harry Brook’s bat and was put down by Hope behind the stumps. In those few moments England’s chances might have been definitively ruined – they would, had they fallen the other way, been 41 for four – instead from there they flourished.
Even in victory England will know that, after awhipcrack-smart performance in Thursday’s opener, this time they were haphazard. In the field they cobbled together a rogues’ gallery of misfields, fluffed run-outs and dropped catches, and for a while they carried that form into their batting.
West Indies’ total of 308 might have looked eminently achievable as Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith strode out but it had taken on a quite different appearance by the time both openers strode in again, having between them scored precisely nothing. Duckett’s dismissal, flaying a wide delivery from Forde to Jayden Seales at wide third man in the second over, completed what was for him a particularly miserable outing, given that he was also responsible for two of those drops and the worst of the missed run-outs.
After each enjoying a generous helping of good fortune Root and Harry Brook added 85 for the third wicket before the England captain, having motored to 47 off 36, misjudged a hook off Joseph and set up another Seales catch. Jos Buttler also fell without scoring – there were almost as many ducks in the cricket ground at this stage as in the River Taff that runs behind it, and thanks to Hope’s earlier efforts with the bat almost as many cricket balls in the Taff as in the ground – England were, like those balls, in deep water. From there Jacob Bethell, with 17, and Will Jacks, whose 49 was largely composed of singles as he tried to manoeuvre the match-winner back on strike, did most to assist Root with his salvage operation.
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West Indies will regret their failure to bat out their 50 overs after a strong start. That despite the early loss of Jewel Andrew, the 18-year-old who having batted at five in Thursday’s opener was bumped up to open for the first time in his senior career, becoming in the process the youngest player ever to do so for West Indies in this format, an experiment that lasted five balls and brought no runs.
The game would have been much more straightforward for the hosts, if less memorable, had Duckett taken his two early catches at slip: he dropped Brandon King when he was on 11 and Carty on one, the pair scoring 150 more runs between them after their let-offs. In the end, though, it was England who had the great escape.