WI brought down to earth in six-wicket defeat to England

NORTH SOUND, Antigua (CMC):

Enigmatic West Indies produced an underwhelming performance to go under by six wickets to England in the second one-day international (ODI) yesterday, leaving Saturday's finale in Barbados as the all-important series decider.

Four days after chasing down 326 to pull off a shock win in the opening match at the Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium, West Indies could only muster 202 in the 40th over after being asked to bat first in the day/night contest at the same venue.

Captain Shai Hope followed up his unbeaten hundred with a top score of 68 at a run-a-ball, while left-hander Sherfane Rutherford stroked a responsible 63 off 80 deliveries to post his maiden ODI fifty in his second game.

Left-arm seamer Sam Curran, who leaked 98 runs in the opener, returned with three wickets for 33 runs to wreck the top order in an incisive new-ball spell and earn Man-of-the-Match honours as off-spinner Liam Livingstone, with three for 39, also chipped in as West Indies plunged to 23 for four in the seventh over before recovering.

In reply, England survived a minor stumble to comfortably chase down their target in the 33rd over - captain Jos Buttler returning to form with an unbeaten 58 off 45 deliveries and starring in an unbroken 90-run, fifth-wicket partnership with Harry Brook, who made 43 not out off 49 balls.

However, opener Will Jacks had laid the foundation for the successful run chase, the 25-year-old right-hander lashing 73 off 72 deliveries.

Left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie, who took two for 34, struck twice in successive overs to inject hope into the West Indies' victory bid before that fizzled.

"As we all can see, we didn't start as well as we should've with the bat. We put ourselves under pressure there," Hope said afterwards.

"I must take the positive from the game: Sherfane played a fairly excellent innings there to get us out of a hole. Again, we didn't finish as well as we could've.

"We didn't play the situations smart enough. I think that caused that downfall in the back end."

He added: "We have to win the game [at Kensington Oval] to win the series, and everything we need to do, whether it is from more planning [or] more preparation, we've got to be ready for the next game coming."