North Sound (Antigua and Barbuda), Mar 6: A stroke-filled maiden century by Denesh Ramdin just wasn’t enough as England held on to defeat the West Indies by 25 runs in the deciding third and final one-day international.
Ramdin’s 128, the first ODI hundred by a West Indies wicketkeeper, lifted the home side from 43 for four in pursuit of a daunting target of 304 when he was last out with the total on 278, bowled by Tim Bresnan having taken 14 runs off the first three deliveries of the 48th over yesterday.
Earlier, Joe Root battled through the considerable pain of a sore right thumb — the result of a blow inflicted by fast-medium bowler Ravi Rampaul at the start of his innings — to stroke his first hundred in this form of the game while Jos Buttler fell one run short of his own first ODI century to take England to 303 for six.
Root, who was named man of the match, and Buttler put on 175 for the fifth wicket after the innings was at a crossroads when Sunil Narine bowled the experienced Eoin Morgan to reduce England to 116 for four in the 24th over.
The spinner came in for some rare punishment later in the innings, conceding 21 runs off his ninth over.
“It was good to watch what our boys did with the bat over the final ten overs, given what happened to us in the first match,” said England skipper Stuart Broad.
“The overall effort is encouraging looking ahead to the World Twenty (in Bangladesh later this month).”
West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo finished with three wickets, including two off consecutive deliveries but Moeen Ali’s 55 at the top of the order was necessary to avoid a complete collapse before Root and Buttler took over.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Buttler was left to rue an attempt to sneak his 100th run in the final over as he only succeeded in spooning a catch back to the bowler Rampaul. (Agencies)
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