KINGSTON: England, led by Jason Roy and Joe Root centuries, showed why they are World Cup favourites, gatecrashing Chris Gayle’s retirement party and posting their highest successful ODI chase to win the series opener against West Indies in Barbados.
Self-proclaimed “Universe Boss” Gayle bossed the England bowlers around once he hit his stride, smashing 12 sixes as he led West Indies to their highest score against England. But, on an enviable batting pitch and against a line-up as strong as England’s, 361 still looked to be an achievable target for the world’s No. 1 side.
And so it proved, with Roy’s eye-catching 123 off 85 balls setting the tourists up - they had 205 runs on the board by the time he became their second wicket to fall - while Root (102 off 97) and some poor West Indies fielding did the rest to hand England a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Roy and Root were dropped twice each and made the opposition pay, much as Gayle did after Roy grassed a sitter early in his innings. Gayle took a long time to settle in the official start of his ODI swansong, having declared that he would retire from one-day cricket after the World Cup, starting in May.
After 14 overs, Gayle had just 12 runs off 36 balls; by end of the 35th he had faced 100 deliveries for his century. His penchant for clearing the boundary, when it finally came out of hiding, carried him to 135 off 129 balls but also caught on with his team-mates, who added 11 of their own for a world record 23 sixes in West Indies’ total of 360 for 8. After the 10-over Powerplay, however, Roy and Jonny Bairstow had steered England to 88 for 0, well ahead of West Indies’ 49 for 1 at the same stage. Bairstow’s dismissal, top-edging Holder to wicketkeeper Shai Hope after he had scored 34 off 33 balls, barely registered as a blip. Root, who like Roy had scored a century in Sunday’s warm-up match against West Indies University Vice-Chancellor’s XI, slotted in and the batsmen continued to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
Scores: England 364 for 4 (Roy 123, Root 102) beat West Indies 360 for 8 (Gayle 135, Hope 64) by six wickets.
Highest totals batting 2nd in ODIs
Team Score Result Opp Ground Match date
SA 438/9 won Aus Johannesburg 12 Mar 2006
SL 411/8 lost Ind Rajkot 15 Dec 2009
SA 372/6 won Aus Durban 5 Oct 2016
Eng 366/8 lost Ind Cuttack 19 Jan 2017
Eng 365/9 lost NZ The Oval 12 Jun 2015
Eng 365 lost Scot Edinburgh 10 Jun 2018
Eng 364/4 won WI Bridgetown 20 Feb 2019
Ind 362/1 won Aus Jaipur 16 Oct 2013
Ind 356/7 won Eng Pune 15 Jan 2017
Ind 351/4 won Aus Nagpur 30 Oct 2013
Eng 350/3 won NZ Nottingham 17 Jun 2015
NZ 350/9 won Aus Hamilton 20 Feb 2007