As if the Ashes and the World Cup weren’t enough, England’s cricket misery has reached a humiliating new low.
The national cricket team that apparently changed the fabric of the game with their brash and brazen style of play ‘Bazball’ have become nothing more than a pushover.
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Looking to put the pain of their disastrous World Cup campaign behind them, the Poms then ventured into the Carribean for a three-match one-day series against the West Indies.
With the series locked up at one-win each, England could have emerged victorious and claimed a much-needed series win on Saturday … but it wasn’t to be.
A dream debut by Matthew Forde helped guide the West Indies to a series-clinching four-wicket win over the Poms.
In a rain-affected encounter, the 21-year-old Barbadian delighted the few home supporters among a majority English audience with figures of three for 29 as the tourists were restricted to 206 for nine off 40 overs after being put in.
Then, with the West Indies stuttering at 135 for six in pursuit of a revised target of 188 off 34 overs, Forde (13 not out) joined Romario Shepherd (41 not out) in an unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 56 to take the Caribbean team to their first ODI series triumph over England for 16 years and their first at home against these opponents for 25 years.
“This is a dream come true,” said an overwhelmed Forde, who was named Man of the Match, in reflecting on his contribution.
“The wicket was a bit tacky so it was just about bowling the right line and length. And when I came in to bat, it was just about turning over the strike and getting Sheppy on strike as often as possible.”
Brought into the team in place of Oshane Thomas and given use of the new ball, the hometown boy claimed wickets in his first two overs and added a third in his fifth to put England immediately on the back foot.
“We were a few short with the bat,” said England captain Jos Buttler in reflecting on the loss.
“We fought hard with the ball but it just wasn’t enough. This is the start of a long journey for this side. Hopefully we can build something for the future.”
For West Indies captain Shai Hope, who took the Man of the Series award with a tally of 192 runs at an average of 96 across the three matches, both the result and the contributions of younger players were encouraging.
“It’s great to see these other guys chipping in with the bat and as long as we continue in this vein it can develop into a very good batting group,”
England and the West Indies will now square off in a five-match T20 series before the Poms take a month off.
It’ll be the last chance of what has been a horror 2023 for the Poms who have only claimed two series victories.
They got the better of Bangladesh during a one-day series in March as they saluted 2-1, before they toppled New Zealand 3-1 in another one-day series in September.
Their year got underway with a 2-1 ODI series loss against South Africa with their second series loss coming against Bangladesh who swept them 3-0 in T20’s.
Across Tests, one-day and T20 competitions … the apparently almighty England recorded 18 wins and 20 losses in 2023 with one draw.
– with AFP
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