West Indies clinch T20 series after Shai Hope edges hosts past England total

What a difference two days make. Somehow Tuesday’s ludicrous, record-smashing, high-scoring entertainment was followed by a sequel that delivered, eventually, thrilling low-scoring entertainment; and a result that was as much as a contrast as the style in which it was achieved. It was won, with four balls to spare and in the most inappropriate of ways, with a massive six from Shai Hope.

So a series marked by stunning power hitting, roaring run rates and an unexpected midway transformation in England’s performances and prospects concluded as a 3-2 triumph for West Indies, who extended their winning run at home against England to four series in three formats over nearly five years.

England assembled exactly the same players in exactly the same place and exactly the same situation – losing the toss, put in to bat – but this was an entirely different performance. A wicket once so true turned untrustworthy and they struggled to a score of 132, less than half the 267 to which they had joyously motored just 48 hours previously. And though the home side’s response was anything but overwhelming, neither was the result ever in significant doubt.

Often there is a sense as a tour enters its final days of thoughts turning to home. The situation the England players found themselves in here, being confined for security reasons to their hotel in Port of Spain after the best part of three weeks touring a variety of Caribbean idylls, and with barely even a training session to distract them, encouraged and amplified it.

So perhaps the focus was not as laser sharp as it might have been for this game, determination less than absolute to grasp this opportunity to end England’s run of reverses in the Caribbean. Whatever the reason, the pyrotechnics that rocketed England to victory in the two previous matches never sparked in this one. It took a fabulous delivery from Gudakesh Motie to end Phil Salt’s run of absurd form with his score a modest 38, but some of the other wickets that fell during the period that defined England’s innings and the game seemed a little careless.

In the fourth over Jos Buttler casually turned a Jason Holder delivery to fine leg, where Oshane Thomas, playing his first international T20 for over two years, was positioned, hands cupped. Harry Brook tried to paddle-sweep Motie but sent the ball only a few feet into the air, giving Nicholas Pooran an easy catch.

That made it 70 for four and the game was one ball into its ninth over, at which point Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali had to focus for a while on disaster prevention rather than entertainment. By the 10th over the carnival dancers – whose job is to entertain the crowd from a platform located just beyond the boundary rope after sixes, wickets, and assorted moments of high excitement – were being only rarely called upon, spending most of their time sitting on folding chairs, fanning themselves and looking less than gripped.

Suddenly bowlers were energised by the prospect of posting, for a change, less than humiliating figures. Akeal Hosein’s were outstanding, his four overs going for just 20 and bringing the wickets of Will Jacks and Moeen, undone by a relay catch on the boundary after combining with Livingstone to add 40 for the fifth wicket. Livingstone followed precisely two overs later, pushing the ball limply back into the hands of Motie, at which point things really fell apart, the last five wickets surrendered in 20 balls for just 11 runs.

Just as surely as when they came out on Tuesday tasked with chasing an almost unachievable 268, the outcome of the West Indies’ run chase seemed inevitable from the start. The wicket may have transformed so as to be benign for bowlers and brutal for batting, but they needed little more than to keep their heads.

Halfway through their innings they were 62 for three, and if England had 15 more runs at the same point they had also made a complete hash of the rest of it, a trap which, thanks to Hope’s 43-ball 43 as he again steered his side to their target, West Indies avoided. This batting display may have lacked their usual flamboyance but until the final ball it was entirely appropriate for the occasion.

Amid the general theme of transformation Adil Rashid’s excellence remained constant. The 35-year-old, who rose to the top of the T20 bowling rankings on Wednesday, taking two wickets and conceding just 21. Reece Topley was even better, also claiming a pair but conceding only 17. England take plenty of positives from this series, but the result was not one.