England thrashed by nine wickets as West Indies dominate from first over
• England all out for 103 having been sent into bat by hosts
• Jason Holder stars with the ball taking four wickets as West Indies dominate
• Windies batters canter to victory as hosts take 1-0 series lead
You can change the players, the format, the colour of the ball, and even all the coaches too. Only, England’s addiction to collapse remains. Six days after their Ashes campaign had ended in the detritus of losing 10 wickets for 56 in Hobart, England produced a worthy encore: a collapse to 49-7, the prelude to a nine-wicket defeat in Bridgetown.
On a proud day for Barbados - the first international hosted since the country became a republic last November - it was apt that hometown hero Jason Holder, with four wickets for seven, set up the win. Shai Hope, the other Barbadian in the West Indies XI, then helped make sure of it by scoring 20 as the West Indies openers alone reached half of England’s total. Even England’s best batsman on the day hails from the island: Chris Jordan, who top-scored with 28 to lend a patina of respectability to their total of 103.
The only shame was that only a small portion of the crowd - with the Kensington Oval's capacity reduced by half because of the pandemic - were locals, rather than England supporters. While tickets for locals cost half as much as for foreign fans, the cheapest tickets for locals were still US $20: too much, on this evidence, though a winning team should help.
England fans might be numb to the pain of red-ball collapse, but the white-ball game has provided one area in which competence has been assured. Yet it certainly didn’t feel that way as Jason Roy fell trying to heave a low full toss in the first over, Tom Banton and Moeen Ali succumbed driving in consecutive deliveries in the second and then James Vince slashed a Sheldon Cottrell long-hop to cover. Not for the first time this winter, the emblem of England’s woes was a run-out: Liam Dawson attempted a harum-scarum single, was sent back and ended up on his knees. At 39 for six, so were his team-mates.
