Jonny Bairstow hit the first One-Day International hundred of his career as England beat the Windies by seven wickets in a rain-affected tie at Old Trafford.

Tourists fail to make toss advantage count

 

With the start delayd by two hours and the match reduced to 42 overs per side, visiting captain Jason Holder won the toss and elected to bat.

His decision was soon justified, as Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis got their side off to a flyer as they added 45 for the first wicket in just 5.3 overs.

‘Universe Boss’ Gayle - playing his first one-day international since the 2015 World Cup - produced three huge sixes in that opening stand, clearing his front leg and demonstrating the destructive shots over the leg-side he has become synonymous with in recent years to power 37 off 27 balls.

Fellow left-hander Lewis (11) was the first to fall, failing to despatch a long-hop from Moeen (1-5) and succeeding only in smashing the ball straight to Alex Hales at square leg who took a sharp catch.

Opening partner Gayle was the next to depart, mistiming a Chris Woakes (2-41) slower ball high into the Manchester sky where Joe Root took an excellent catch running back from extra cover - making up for his drop off the same man when he was yet to score in the process.

With both openers back in the dressing room, Shai Hope (35), fresh from a successful Test summer, joined forces with experienced head Marlon Samuels to rebuild things for their side as they contributed 50 off 14.3 overs together at the crease

Question marks could be raised however over the usefulness of Samuels’ innings, as he added only 17 runs from his 46 balls faced at a strike rate of 36.96 before feathering a glove behind off his well-publicised adversary Ben Stokes (3-43), who had earlier broken the partnership when Bairstow showed his catching prowess without the gloves to cling on to an acrobatic catch off Hope at deep square-leg.

Boundaries were becoming hard to come by, and despite Rovman Powell (23 off 28) and Jason Mohammed (18 off 27) nudging and nurdling the total up to 149-5, from that point on the Windies batting line-up began to splutter.

Both exited within an over and a run of one another: the latter gave Hales his second catch of the day on the midwicket boundary off Adil Rashid’s (2-31) leg-spin; whilst the former then proceeded to spoon an attempted chip into the on-side straight to David Willey (1-39) at mid-on, becoming Woakes’ second victim

It was left to skipper Holder (41 off 33) to try and take his side up to a competitive total - however he was afforded little assistance by the tail.

Ashley Nurse (1) - who produced an innings archetypal of the Windies’ as a whole, blocking four balls in succession before then playing an ugly slog straight to mid-off - Devendra Bishoo (5) and Jerome Taylor (2) all found scoring hard to come by, meaning that Holder’s 15 off the last over could only produce a total of 204-9 off their allocated overs.

English batsmen canter to victory

Joined by Bairstow (100*) at the top of the order Hales was tormenter-in-chief of the visitors bowling attack early on, scything four fours in a whirlwind knock of 19 from 14 deliveries before driving a pitched-up Taylor delivery to Lewis at cover-point, who held on at the second attempt.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Bairstow - who was without the gloves here due to Jos Buttler’s presence as the established gloveman in the one-day side - was joined by county compatriot Root upon the fall of the first wicket, and the two showed their skill to take the game away from their opponents.

Demonstrating an array of classy drives, cheeky dabs and sweeps and cultured pulls the Yorkshire duo were rarely flustered in their 125-run partnership as they pushed their way towards victory.

An impressive aspect of the pair’s game was their rapid running, showing an almost telepathic understanding to scamper numerous ones and twos from which they had no right to achieve.

Despite Root playing on for 54 and new man Morgan edging behind - both from Kesrick Williams (2-50) - Stokes (23*)  was the man present as his teammate reached his first international fifty-over three-figure score, doing so with a cover drive from the off-spin of Nurse (0-48).

All-rounder Stokes then finished the contest in style, launching a six high over long on to seal the win and take his side 1-0 up in the five-match series.