It is the nightmare scenario doing the rounds in ODI cricket right now, the one no team wants to find themselves in. Bowling to this England batting line-up in the last ten overs of their innings when they have wickets in hand. It's not a job for the feint hearted. Hell, it's not even a job for the toughest of souls. More often than not, it's a situation which leads to serious punishment and in Grenada, it was West Indies' turn to suffer.
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England were three wickets down at the end of the 40th over. Captain Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler were well set and ready to tee off which the tourists did to the tune of 154 runs in the last ten overs. It was the most runs England have ever scored in the final sixty balls of an ODI innings, beating the 135 they managed against Pakistan at Trent Bridge in 2016 on the way to a world-record total of 444.
According to CricViz, over the last four years, England's average run rate in the last ten overs is 8.26, the fastest in the world, so this performance wasn't much of a surprise. It's just what they do. In the same period, West Indies have conceded nearly eight runs an over with the ball at the death, the second worst of any side who has qualified for the World Cup. It's just what they do, too. And at St George's, it wasn't hard to see why.
The home team did not bowl particularly well at any stage and certainly not in the final ten overs. Searching for yorkers, the fast-bowlers bowled far too many full tosses which Buttler in particular kept smashing over the boundary. In such situations, there is not much margin for error, and some of these deliveries were off by just an inch or two, but there were at least half a dozen full tosses dispatched for six in the final ten overs.
Nor did it seem that West Indies had a plan B. Although there was the odd short ball or cutter, they largely persisted with the yorker plan, even when it wasn't working. There were precious few slower ball bouncers, precious few slower balls of any sort actually, and when they did adjust, they served up length deliveries. Buttler was not missing out on length balls today. He rarely misses out on them ever. Only left-armer Sheldon Cottrell emerged with any credit from this phase of the game but even he wasn't spared.
Yet the punishment that Cottrell, Carlos Brathwaite, Oshane Thomas and Jason Holder endured at the death of the innings wasn't solely the result of poor bowling. Even if they had bowled better, England still would have made hay. The real issue for West Indies at St George's was the performance of their two spinners,
