CASTRIES, St Lucia – Shai Hope and Evin Lewis tore through England’s bowlers and the West Indies completed a historic run chase at the Daren Sammy Ground in a memorable five-wicket victory over their archrivals on Saturday.
While the win only served as a consolation with England already having wrapped up the best-of-five series by winning the first three matches, Player-of-the-Match Hope and Lewis helped power the Windies to 221-5 in 19 overs in pursuit of their opponent’s formidable 218 for five.
It was the highest-ever run chase at the ground and the 136 runs which Hope and Lewis put on was also the most by the West Indies after the first 10 overs in T20I cricket.
Faced with the mammoth task of scoring at almost 11 runs an over, the pair started slowly, managing only five runs from the first two overs.
However, they unleashed their fury in the next over bowled by pacer John Turner, with Lewis smashing his first ball over deep backward square leg for six, before Hope crunched his last four balls for three fours and a six, as the Windies raced to 30 without loss.
Hope brought up the West Indies’ 50 in the fifth over by driving Sam Curran to the boundary, and both batters then crunched spinner Dan Mousley for respective sixes in the sixth over.
Leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed was then lifted over deep midwicket for six by Hope, and he brought up his half century off 23 balls when he hit the last ball of the sixth over for four as the West Indies motored to 83 without loss.
In what proved to be one of the decisive moments of the match, off-spinner Liam Livingstone was taken apart in the eighth over which went for a mammoth 30 runs.
He started with five wides and Lewis took two runs off his next ball. The next delivery was launched over long on for six, the third swatted away to deep backward square for four, and Lewis finished off the over by hitting him for two more sixes which sandwiched another wide delivery, to propel the Windies to 113 without loss.
Lewis brought up his 50 off 26 balls when he guided Curran to the fine leg boundary, and he hit him for another boundary and two sixes in succession.
But with the score on 136, the home side lost three wickets in three balls to send a hush across the stadium.
Lewis was caught by Mousley off the bowling of Ahmed for 68 from 31 balls, inclusive of seven sixes and four fours, and then Hope was needlessly run out off the next ball for 54 off 24 balls, after being turned back by Nicholas Pooran as he attempted a suicide single.
With his third delivery, Ahmed’s googly found the inside edge of Pooran’s bat before ricocheting into the stumps to send the Windies slumping to 136 for three in the 10th over.
Skipper Rovman Powell and Shimron Hetmyer added a valuable 36 runs before the latter became Ahmed’s third wicket.
Nerves set in when Powell was trapped dead in front by Turner to be out for 38, with the West Indies still requiring 23 runs from 21 balls.
But Sherfane Rutherford and Roston Chase were up to the task, and Rutherford duly ended the contest by hitting Mousley for two successive sixes to end the match in the 19th over.
Earlier, England did well to tie the highest-ever total at the ground.
Openers Phil Salt and Will Jacks gave them a fiery start by adding 54 runs in five overs, until Alzarri Joseph had Jacks caught behind for 25.
Salt then added a further 48 runs with his captain Jos Buttler to take England past the 100-mark before he gloved offspiner Roston Chase behind to be caught for 55 from 35 balls.
Buttler played well for his 38 before he was caught trying to reverse sweep Gudakesh Motie, but Jacob Bethell cracked an unbeaten 62 from just 32 balls and together with Curran, who made 24, gathered 63 runs from the last five overs to set themselves a healthy total.
Motie took 2-40 from his four overs.
The fifth and final T2oI is on Sunday at the same venue.
SUMMARISE SCORES
ENGLAND 218-5 in 20 overs (Jacob Bethell 62 not out, Phil Salt 55, Jos Buttler 38, Will Jacks 25, Sam Curran 24; Motie 2-40).
WEST INDIES 221-5 in 19 overs (Evin Lewis 68, Shai Hope 54, Rovman Powell 38, Sherfane Rutherford 29 not out; Rehan Ahmed 3-43).
