Jonny Bairstow hit his second ODI century for England as they completed a nine-wicket win over the West Indies in the final game of the 2017 English summer.

Shai Hope finished his breakthrough tour with 72 as the visitors struggled to 288-6 at the Ageas Bowl before Bairstow and Jason Roy (96) raced towards their target, putting on 156 for the first wicket.

Team news

Windies captain Jason Holder returned to the Caribbean meaning Jason Mohammed captained the side in his place.

Sunil Ambris was handed his ODI debut in the middle order for the tourists, whilst Kyle Hope opened the batting ahead of the injured Evin Lewis.

England handed a debut to Surrey seamer Tom Curran in place of Chris Woakes, their only change from the six-run Duckworth-Lewis-Stern win at The Oval on Wednesday.

Gayle goes big early on

Hope and Chris Gayle passed 50 in just 44 balls to start the innings, Gayle smashing 40 of them that included five sixes and the solitary four.

But it was the perfect way for Curran to get his ODI career underway and his first wicket was that of the big-hitting left-hander, thanks to the hands of Liam Plunkett.

The Yorkshire seamer held onto the catch diving at full length sprinting back towards the boundary from mid-off to hold onto a brilliant catch,

That brought the Hope brothers together at the crease.

Their partnership spanned the exact same amount of balls as that of Kyle Hope and Gayle, but their pair put on just 34 runs as England tightened things.

It was Plunkett again who was in the thick of the action, diving away low to his left off his own bowling to see the back of Kyle Hope for 33.

England's spinners put the squeeze on

England's spin duo of Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid were allowed to bowl with combined figures of 20-1-78-2 by the West Indies as they failed to take the game to England.

That led to Shai Hope and Marlon Samuels batting for 16.5 overs but putting on just 57 in that time for the tourists.

Samuels had struggled to 32 from a pedestrian 60 balls before he ran past an Ali delivery, leaving Jos Buttler with the simplest of tasks to whip the bails off behind the stumps.

Hope battled on with stand-in captain Mohammed, but it was to get no easier for the West Indies as it took 50 balls for the West Indies to add their next 52 runs.

Rashid picked up his only wicket as Mohammed went for 25, but Hope went on to reach 72 from 95 balls, steady if not spectacular.

Ambris finished the innings with a flourish, hitting 38 from 27 on debut to give West Indies their final total of 288.

Bairstow and Roy set off like a train

It became fairly evident early on that target would be far from competitive as the aggressive Roy continued to make the most of his England recall.

The first powerplay yielded 71 runs for the hosts, 47 of them going to the Surrey batsman.

The pair made it two century opening partnerships on the bounce after just 14.2 overs and Roy had raced to 78 from 61 balls when Bairstow brought up his half century.

A six and a four in consecutive balls took Roy to 96, but he couldn't complete his first ODI century since June 2016 when he was trapped in front by Miguel Cummins for 96 from 70 balls.

Bairstow and Root finish the job

England's test captain Joe Root joined Bairstow in the middle and was quickly into his stride, cruising to 23 by the time the 200 came up from inside 29 overs.

The Yorkshireman took advantage of some more lacklustre West Indies fielding as two fours and a single took him to his second ODI century from 90 balls.

Roy's wicket proved to be the only wicket to fall as Root sauntered his way to 46 from 44 balls, happily watching from the non-striker's end as Bairstow continued to dominate the mediocre at best West Indies bowling attack.

Bairstow hit 17 fours as he raced to 141 from just 114 balls, seeing England home losing just one wicket in the process.

Root smashed an enormous straight six to end the contest with 72 balls to spare against a deflated West Indies side that frankly looked like they were ready to jump straight on the plane home.

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Harry Wright
Sport Journalism at the university of Bedfordshire. MK Dons supporter, referee, cricket player, Somerset and New England Patriots fan.