West Indies v England: third men’s one-day cricket international

Key events

1st over: England 3-0 (Salt 3, Jacks 0) Will Jacks and Phil Salt – both averaging 33 in this format – make their way out. Matthew Forde opens up, with Salt punching to point for a dot to kick things off. A misfield brings Salt three through the leg side, with Sherfane Rutherford hurting after a stop by the boundary. Jacks is nearly a goner first ball, flicking aerially towards Shimron Hetmyer at square leg, the ball just dropping short of the fielder.

Great tune, always.

The players are out there for the anthems. Not long now.

The teams

Both sides make two changes. Alzarri Joseph and Romario Shepard come in for Shamar Joseph and Jayden Seales. England have left out Saqib Mahmood and John Turner, with Reece Topley and Jamie Overton in. Overton extends the batting but will he have a trundle, too?

West Indies: Evin Lewis, Brandon King, Keacy Carty, Shai Hope (c & wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Shimron Hetmyer, Roston Chase, Romario Shepherd, Matthew Forde, Alzarri Joseph, Gudakesh Motie

England: Phil Salt (wk), Will Jacks, Jordan Cox, Jacob Bethell, Liam Livingstone (c), Sam Curran, Dan Mousley, Jamie Overton, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley.

West Indies win the toss and choose to field

Shai Hope wins it, isn’t exactly sure how the pitch will play and decides to bowl first. Liam Livingstone says England would’ve done the same.

This is a really great Spin from Peter Mason:

With more important things happening elsewhere, my mind goes back to Don McRae’s brilliant 2017 interview with Zafar Ansari, who retired from professional cricket aged 25, just months on from his Test debut for England. Here he speaks about playing against India while the 2016 US presidential election was taking place:

It was a very politically significant time. Trump was elected on the first day of our opening Test in India. I was batting at 10 and we weren’t allowed our phones in the dressing room. I was getting snippets of information from security but I felt so disconnected from something I would have been hyper-connected to here. The combination of playing very difficult cricket, while missing things that mattered so much, made me think more clearly about my future.

I heard the news about Trump at the end of that day’s play. We got our phones and it was a shocking moment. I expected [Hillary] Clinton to edge it and found it difficult to accept. I’ve since focused most on the policy – like changes to healthcare provision, the attempted Muslim ban, as well as the ramping up of immigration and deportations – rather than just thinking of Trump as the clown he often appears. It’s important to be less hysterical about the person but more hysterical about the political implications.”

Preamble

Hello, hello, hello and welcome to a bit of jeopardy: a decider in this three-match ODI series between England and West Indies in Barbados. At 160 for four chasing an imposing 329, England were down and out in the second one-dayer before Liam Livingstone – dropped in the summer, now stand-in captain – swung his way to a maiden ODI century, nine sixes included in his 85-ball 124. Fuuuuun.

England haven’t won an ODI series since before last year’s horrendous showing at the World Cup, so, despite the experimental nature of their current setup, this game has genuine meaning to it. You don’t always get that nowadays with the white-ball stuff.

I’ll be here for the first half, with Rob Smyth braving the early hours for the finish. Drop me a line with all your thoughts, queries, political analysis, ways to heal the world, whatever you fancy.