West Indies defeat England by four wickets for 3-2 T20 series win

TRINIDARD (Agencies): Shai Hope hit a winning six as West Indies bounced back from defeat earlier in the week to beat England by four wickets in Trinidad on Thursday and take a 3-2 victory in the T20 international series. The hosts went into the last over chasing nine runs to win but Jason Holder secured three off Chris Woakes’ first delivery and Hope then smashed the rest off the next ball at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba. Sam Curran had given England a chance in the previous over, giving away only two runs and taking a wicket. “It was closer than we thought at the end today, yes. We kept losing key wickets but we always knew Shai Hope was going to be the important man on this pitch,” said West Indies captain Rovman Powell.

The victory with four balls to spare completed a hat-trick of T20 series wins for West Indies in 2023 after beating South Africa away and India at home. Hope was the match top scorer with 43 off 43 balls. England were all out for 132 with three deliveries to spare after a late collapse to some stunning bowling and fielding by the home side. Opener Phil Salt, who smashed 119 off 57 balls at the same ground on Tuesday to square the series, was bowled by man-of-the-match Gudakesh Motie (3-24) for a top score of 38 immediately after hitting a six as the visitors slumped to 60-3. Buttler had already gone for 11, caught by Oshane Thomas off Holder. Salt’s score took his series tally to 331 runs from five innings but England’s batting lacked the heft of the previous match in which they belted 19 sixes on the way to a total of 267-3. England were 109-4 after 14 overs but then slumped as the West Indies’ spinners went to work. Andre Russell was on for a hat-trick in the penultimate over when he took Chris Woakes and Rehan Ahmed with successive balls but Adil Rashid surviving to the final over when he was run out going for a second to ensure Curran retained strike. “It’s disappointing to come out on the wrong side of it,” said Salt. “It was another good game of cricket tonight and we took it as deep as we could. Shai Hope played a really good knock and I think we will be better off in the coming months for this experience,” he added, referring to next year’s T20 World Cup.

England will learn from West Indies defeats, says coach Mott:

England suffered a second successive white-ball series defeat to West Indies on Thursday after losing the fifth Twenty20 by four wickets but coach Matthew Mott said they will take valuable lessons from the tour into next year’s World Cup. England will play just one four-match series against Pakistan in May before defending their T20 World Cup title in the United States and West Indies in June. “We really could not have got many more lessons from this tour,” Mott said. “West Indies thoroughly deserved their win but we’ve had some really good performances here. There’s some exciting things in the pipeline.” Despite the Pakistan series being the only T20 International action England’s players will have before the World Cup, Mott said they would have plenty of opportunities in the format at franchise level. “It’s not as big an issue as people think,” he told TNT Sports. “Our players are getting opportunities in white-ball leagues all around the world. They’re playing a high level of cricket. That’s the modern game. We will get out here to the West Indies a little bit early if we can and make sure we are prepared and ready for an amazing World Cup.”

Brief scores:

West Indies 133 for 6 (Shai Hope 43 not out, Sherfane Rutherford 30) beat England 132 (Phil Salt 38, Gudakesh Motie 3-24) by four wickets.