West Indies vs. England: West Indies Secure Eight-Wicket Win in First ODI at Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground

The West Indies opened their home series against England with a win by eight wickets in the first One Day International on Thursday. It was their sixth win in the last seven games played at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Grounds in North Sound, Antigua & Barbuda.

Guyanese left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie led the destruction, as the visitors were dismissed for 209, lasting just 45.1 overs. It was their second lowest total this calendar year.

The Three Lions included four debutants. Jordan Cox, Jamie Overton, Dan Mousley, and John Turner were all handed their first caps in this format, as the tourists continue to struggle with a fixture crunch, compounded by injuries to key players.

Motie picked up where he left off last year against this same opposition, dooming them to ODI and T20I losses on their last tour of the region. On this occasion, he took 4-41 from his 10 overs, receiving excellent support from the pace trio of Jayden Seales, Matthew Forde, and Alzarri Joseph.

West Indies captain Shai Hope guessed right at the toss, then asked England to have a bat. Phil Salt and Will Jacks lasted just over eight overs, before Seales had the former caught for 18 off 29 balls, the first of his two wickets.

Jacks fell two overs later to the same bowler, out for 19, and the score 46-2 in the 11th over. Seales ended with the very economical figures of 2-22 off eight. Brought back in at the death, he took no more wickets, but yielded few runs.

Cox, the debutant, and Barbados-born Jacob Bethell contrived a minor recovery, taking the score to 86 before Cox was dismissed by Forde for 17.

Again, the partnership broken, the now senior batsman soon found himself back in the pavilion as well. Bethell hit three fours in his knock of 27 off 33 balls, before becoming Forde’s second victim. Forde ended with 2-48 from nine overs.

Sam Curran and stand-in captain Liam Livingstone built nicely through the middle overs, Livingstone going at nearly a run-a-ball for hs 48, inclusive of three fours and two sixes, before going caught and bowled Motie.

Livingstone and Curran added 72 to the total, with the score 165-5 in the 35th over, after the departure of the skipper.

Debutants Mousley and Overton had little to add to the score, spurning the decent platform laid by the top order. Mousley made eight off 12 balls before his dismissal by Motie. Overton, became the first England debutant dismissed for a golden duck since Gareth Batty in 2002, as he went leg before wicket to the Guyanese tweaker.