ST JOHN’S – Eng­land’s stand-in cap­tain Liam Liv­ing­stone scored a breath­tak­ing, maid­en One Day In­ter­na­tion­al cen­tu­ry to steer his side to an im­pres­sive five-wick­et vic­to­ry over the West In­dies and lev­el the three-match se­ries on Sat­ur­day at the Sir Vi­vian Richards Sta­di­um in An­tigua.

Liv­ing­stone cracked an un­beat­en 124 from 85 balls and Eng­land com­plet­ed the sec­ond-high­est suc­cess­ful run chase in the Caribbean by over­haul­ing the home side’s chal­leng­ing 328 for six in 50 overs, fin­ish­ing on 329 for five off 47.3 overs.

His hero­ic ef­forts over­shad­owed a bril­liant cen­tu­ry from West In­dies cap­tain Shai Hope and set up a win­ner-takes-all game in the fi­nal ODI at Kens­ing­ton Oval on Wednes­day.

Hope had ear­li­er end­ed his lean run of form by scor­ing 117 from 127 balls as the West In­dies post­ed their 22nd-high­est ODI to­tal of all time and sixth-high­est at home.

But Liv­ing­stone tore the West In­dies’ bowl­ing at­tack to shreds in the fi­nal 10 overs of the in­nings with Eng­land need­ing to score at 10 runs an over.

Their vic­to­ry was set up by a sol­id bat­ting per­for­mance by Eng­land’s top or­der, with three bats­men scor­ing half-cen­turies.

West In­dies were in con­trol ear­ly on when Matthew Forde ac­count­ed for Will Jacks for 12 and Shamar Joseph, who was mak­ing his ODI de­but, had Jor­dan Cox caught be­hind for just four to leave the vis­i­tors 63-2 in the 12th over.

Phil Salt and Ja­cob Bethell added 44 runs for the third wick­et to lift Eng­land out of trou­ble be­fore Salt loft­ed Forde in­to the hands of Gu­dakesh Motie at mid-off to be out for a well-played 59 from 59 balls.

His dis­missal brought Liv­ing­stone to the crease and to­geth­er with Bethell, they stead­ied the in­nings in a 53-run part­ner­ship.

Liv­ing­stone start­ed ner­vous­ly, edg­ing a de­liv­ery from Joseph past the wick­et­keep­er and a wide first slip for four, but he quick­ly found his groove, hoist­ing Forde over square leg for six the next over.

Bethell, a left-hand­ed Bar­ba­di­an, was not to be left out, hit­ting Ros­ton Chase for two suc­ces­sive bound­aries and a six in the 26th over to bring up his maid­en ODI half-cen­tu­ry in his sev­enth match.

How­ev­er, Chase got his re­venge soon af­ter, hav­ing Bethell caught at long off by Jay­den Seales for 55 from 57 balls, as Eng­land slipped to 160 for four in the 28th over.

Sam Cur­ran’s ar­rival sig­nalled the end of West In­dies’ dom­i­nance, with their 140-run fifth-wick­et part­ner­ship es­sen­tial­ly seal­ing the con­test.

Liv­ing­stone, who had bat­ted cau­tious­ly, even­tu­al­ly brought up his 50 off 60 balls when he hit Motie down the ground for four in the 41st over and fol­lowed it up with a six over deep mid­wick­et.

With Eng­land in need of quick runs, Liv­ing­stone smashed Motie for con­sec­u­tive six­es in the 43rd over that leaked 16 runs to ease some of the pres­sure.

He then took fast bowler Jay­den Seales to the mar­ket in the 45th over, clob­ber­ing him for two six­es and two fours in an over that yield­ed 26 runs.

Liv­ing­stone brought up his first ODI cen­tu­ry in 32 ODIs when he drove Forde for a sin­gle off the 77th ball he faced.

Cur­ran would have been dis­ap­point­ed when he hit Forde’s next de­liv­ery straight to Shim­ron Het­my­er at deep back­ward point to be out for a run-a-ball 52, with the score now 300 for five in the 46th over.

But Liv­ing­stone en­sured there would not be a late-game come­back from the Windies, blast­ing 24 runs from the 46th over bowled by Joseph to bring Eng­land with­in touch­ing dis­tance of vic­to­ry.

He then fit­ting­ly end­ed the con­test by gath­er­ing a sin­gle of Forde. In all, he struck nine six­es and five fours in his in­nings.

Forde was the best West In­dies bowler with 3-48 from 8.3 overs.

Ear­li­er, af­ter los­ing the toss and be­ing sent in to bat, the Windies would have been con­fi­dent af­ter post­ing a for­mi­da­ble to­tal.

They lost Bran­don King (7) and Evin Lewis for four to be 12 for two at one stage, but Kea­cy Car­ty and Hope staged a fight­back in a 143-run part­ner­ship.

Car­ty looked set for a big score be­fore he was bowled by a goo­gly from leg-spin­ner Adil Rashid for 71.

Hope then teamed up with the in-form Sher­fane Ruther­ford to add 79 runs in quick time.

Ruther­ford scored his fourth ODI fifty in five match­es, but reck­less­ly lost his wick­et af­ter mak­ing 54, try­ing to hit Liv­ing­stone out of the ground off suc­ces­sive de­liv­er­ies.

Hope brought up his 17th ODI cen­tu­ry when he drove pac­er Saqib Ma­hom­mod for a sin­gle to tie Desmond Haynes for the third most by a West In­di­an, be­hind on­ly Bri­an Lara (19) and Chris Gayle (25).

He was even­tu­al­ly dis­missed for 117 from 127 balls, in­clu­sive of eight bound­aries and two six­es, and cameos from Shim­ron Het­my­er and Matthew Forde car­ried the West In­dies to their even­tu­al to­tal.

SUM­MARISED SCORES:

WEST IN­DIES 328-6 in 50 overs (Shai Hope 117, Kea­cy Car­ty 71, Sher­fane Ruther­ford 54, Shim­ron Het­my­er 24, Matthew Forde 23 not out, Ros­ton Chase 20 not out; John Turn­er 2-42, Adil Rashid 2-62).

ENG­LAND 329-5 in 47.3 overs (Liam Liv­ing­stone 124 not out, Phil Salt 59, Ja­cob Bethell 55, Sam Cur­ran 52, Will Jacks 12; Forde 3-48).

Eng­land won In­dies by five wick­ets.

CMC