England vs Windies, 5th ODI: 5 Talking Points

England, as expected, defeated the depleted visitors in the final ODI and completed a formidable clean sweep by 4-0 in the 5-match series. The match began amidst Ben Stokes controversy as the hosts rested Chris Woakes and handed a debut to young Tom Curran. Windies too were forced to make a couple of changes as Evin Lewis got injured in the last game and the skipper Jason Holder flew back home for the funeral of his uncle. The game was highly inconsequential and the dead rubber was delayed to begin due to rain.

After opting to bowl first at the Rose Bowl in Southampton, the visiting side started off in grand style as Chris Gayle attacked the opening bowlers along with Kyle Hope. The good work from the openers was continued by the middle order as the final flourish was perfectly provided by Sunil Ambris and Ashley Nurse. Windies posted a competitive 288/6 in their 50 overs. In reply, England never looked in trouble and chased the total comfortably with 9 wickets in hand and 12 overs to spare.

Here we bring you 5 talking points of the match:

1. Shai Hope and Marlon Samuels struggle to get going

Chris Gayle and Kyle Hope provided Windies with a brilliant start but both were dismissed within first 15 overs. The onus was on the middle order to continue in the same flow. But the duo of Hope and Samuels struggled on in the middle overs and piled on a lot of dot balls. Both added only 57 runs for the third wicket in almost 17 overs which killed the momentum completely. In particular, Samuels was the slowest as he scored only 32 off 60 deliveries with a solitary boundary which is not at all acceptable in the modern ODI cricket. Hope, on the other hand, was a tad better than him as he mustered 72 off 95 balls.

2. Ambris and Nurse provided the much-needed flourish

The slow going of the middle order batsmen had cost the visitors a chance of posting a competitive total. But Ambris and Nurse pummelled the poor death bowling of Jake Ball and Tom Curran. The latter was more brutal as he amassed as many as 31 runs off his 12 deliveries with 3 fours and a couple of gigantic hits over the fence. Ambris too freed his arms in the final overs and earned some valuable runs for his team. He remained unbeaten on 38 off 27 cherries as Windies finished on 288 after 50 overs, a much better score than they had expected.

3. Jason Roy misses out on a century

Jason Roy has grabbed his opportunity with both hands in the absence of Alex Hales, who is suspended along with Stokes over a street brawl outside the bar in Bristol. In both the games which he played, he scored half-centuries and he even looked better on Friday. He punished the wayward bowling of the Caribbean bowlers as he was the major scorer in the opening partnership. England crossed 150 in the 22nd over itself but Roy fell short of a well-deserved ton as Miguel Cummins pinned him in front on 96. He hit 11 fours and one six in just 70 deliveries he faced. He would have loved to finish the game but nevertheless, he laid an excellent platform for the batsmen to come.

4. Jonny Bairstow scores his 2nd century of the series

Jonny Bairstow continued to cement his place at the top of the order with a magnificent century, his second of the series. The way he played second fiddle to Roy in the opening stand and then launched an assault after his dismissal was the most impressive in his knock. Once his partner was sent back to the hut, he controlled the game smartly and did not give a sniff to the opposition and won the game for his side. He stayed in the middle right through and scored a whopping 141 runs off 114 balls and his knock was studded with 17 boundaries.

5. Poor fielding of the visitors

The visitors led by Jason Mohammed never arrived on the field after posting a decent total on the board. They were flustered by the attack of Roy and Bairstow and their shoulders dropped within first few overs. Nobody was seen motivating each other and fumbled many times which allowed easy runs to the hosts. However, the batsmen were excellent on the day and that made Windies look hapless in front of the jam-packed crowd and they succumbed to a whitewash in their last game of the tour.