SOUTHAMPTON – England bowled out the West Indies for 212 on Friday, but they face a potential World Cup injury crisis after Jason Roy and Eoin Morgan limped off the pitch at the Hampshire Bowl in Southampton.
Despite occasional flurries, the Caribbean side were never able to mount a sustained assault on England’s bowlers after Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer conceded just eight runs off the first five overs of the match.
Fuelled by three wickets each for Archer and Mark Wood, England dismissed the West Indies with more than five overs to spare.
Barbados-born Archer insisted he didn’t take extra pleasure from impressing against the country he was eligible to represent, before choosing to play for England earlier this year.
“It’s just another game to be honest, but it was very nice to play against some of my friends. The pitch wasn’t as quick as it looked, it was a little bit slow,” Archer said.
“I am being supported well by the other guys. At one point they were looking like getting 300, so it was a real good effort to keep them below 220.”
Opener Chris Gayle, dropped early by Wood in the deep, briefly threatened, hitting Woakes for 10 in two balls, but was caught by Jonny Bairstow on the square-leg boundary for 36 off the bowling of Liam Plunkett.
During the course of his innings Gayle, who has previously indicated this will be his last World Cup, overtook Viv Richards as the leading scorer in one-day internationals between England and the West Indies.
Two balls after his dismissal West Indies were in deep trouble at 55/3, when Shai Hope was trapped in front of the wicket by Wood.
Nicholas Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer combined to put on 89 runs for the fourth wicket before Test captain Joe Root struck, catching Hetmyer off his own bowling for 39.
Root, only an occasional bowler, then struck again in his next over when West Indies captain Jason Holder (nine) could only pop the ball up for another caught and bowled immediately after a six over long-off.
Andre Russell battered two sixes off leg spinner Adil Rashid in three balls, but then did not quite get hold of a Wood short ball, and was caught by Woakes at deep midwicket.
England captain Morgan hobbled off the pitch in the 40th over, struggling to make his way up the pavilion steps.
Morgan had suffered a back spasm and will be unable to bat for 28 minutes at the start of England’s innings, because he was off the field for that time.
When Pooran was caught behind for 63 by Jos Buttler off Archer, West Indies were 202/7.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/CWC19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CWC19so far:
3/27 v South Africa
0/79 v Pakistan
3/29* v West Indies today 👏
FOLLOW #ENGvWI▶️ https://t.co/HmtembPBxn #WeAreEngland #MeninMaroon pic.twitter.com/eHXE2vYokT
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup)
Sheldon Cottrell was out to Archer’s next ball, leaving the bowler on a hat trick.
Oshane Thomas survived that, but Carlos Brathwaite was out shortly afterwards, caught by Buttler off Archer, and Wood bowled Shannon Gabriel to end the innings.
Wood finished with figures of 3/18, while Archer took 3/30.
Earlier, Jason Roy, who scored a century in England’s win against Bangladesh, pulled up with an injury and had to leave the field.
It was announced he would not field for the rest of the innings, suffering with tightness to his left hamstring, and therefore cannot bat higher than number seven.