West Indies have recorded a four-wicket victory over England to win the T20 international series between the nations.
After fighting back from a 2-0 deficit, England had the momentum heading into Thursday's decider, but they could not replicate their record-breaking efforts from Tuesday night.
England were bowled out for just 132 - less than half the score that they posted two days ago - before West Indies secured the win with three balls to spare.
The tourists had initially made a promising start with the in-form Phil Salt and Jos Buttler scoring 24 from the opening 19 balls, but the latter's dismissal for just 11 turned the tide in West Indies favour.
Salt - on the back of consecutive tons - had to settle for 38 from 22 balls on this occasion, and England would go on to lose wickets at regular intervals from there.
π π¦ππ« π§π’ πππ‘ππ¦π! π@WindiesCricket claim the series 3-2 and a white-ball clean-sweep π#WIvENG pic.twitter.com/chrYkHbtcp
β Cricket on TNT Sports (@cricketontnt) December 21, 2023
Liam Livingstone (28) and Moeen Ali (23) kept things competitive, but the final four batsmen contributed just three between them, Andre Russell doing the damage with figures of 2-25 after Gudakesh Motie had chipped in with 3-24.
In response, England struck early to remove Brandon King (3) and Nicholas Pooran (10), but Johnson Charles (27), Shai Hope (43*) and Sherfane Rutherford (30) ensured that their team stayed in control.
While Hope was at the crease, the end result felt a foregone conclusion, regardless of England collecting late wickets, and figures from Reece Topley (2-17) and Adil Rashid (2-21) ultimately proved in vain.
Darren Plant
