England thrash Windies to seal 3-0 series win

Third one-day international, Kia Oval

West Indies 251-9 (40 overs): Rutherford 70, Motie 63; Rashid 3-40

England 246-3 (29.4 overs): Smith 64, Duckett 58

England won by seven wickets; win series 3-0

Scorecard

England romped to a 3-0 series clean sweep over West Indies with a seven-wicket victory in the third one-day international at The Oval.

Chasing 246 in 40 overs after rain, Jamie Smith crashed 64 from just 28 balls - his first ODI half-century - as England reached 100 after just eight overs.

That was the joint-fourth quickest any men's side has reached three figures in the format and they were able to complete their chase with 10.2 overs to spare with Ben Duckett hitting 58 and Joe Root 44.

Smith's assault quickly eradicated fears England would be punished for letting a good position slip in allowing West Indies to post 251-9 in their rain-interrupted 40 overs.

In an innings split in two by a 90-minute rain delay, Gudakesh Motie's 63 at number eight rescued an innings that was floundering at 154-7 despite Sherfane Rutherford's 70.

But Adil Rashid took 3-40 and, despite the bowling lacking accuracy throughout, England secured their first ODI series win since before their white-ball downturn began at the 2023 World Cup.

New captain Harry Brook will look to continue his perfect start in charge in the three-match T20 series which starts in Chester-le-Street on Friday.

Brook has been charged with reinvigorating England's white-ball fortunes after a third poor major tournament in a row led to Jos Buttler's resignation, and could hardly have had a better start.

The clean sweep is their first since one in the Netherlands in 2022 and one of the biggest decisions of his tenure so far - the promotion of Smith to open – appears to be paying off.

Smith showed glimpses in making 37 in the first ODI and with more effortless shot-making on his home ground showed why, despite the 24-year-old having never opened the batting in professional cricket, England have given him this role.

His first runs came off the inside edge but afterwards he cleanly struck another nine fours and three sixes as he targeted the leg side without resorting to slogs.

Having raced to 44 in 22 deliveries, he was dropped at mid-wicket by Justin Greaves and lifted Gudakesh Motie for six over long-on to reach fifty.

In the rest of the over he swept a four, rocked back to hit Motie for six again over mid-wicket and was bowled by the left-arm spinner but Smith had taken any jeopardy from the chase.

Duckett, also dropped on 15 in a lacklustre effort by West Indies, allowed his new opening partner to take the leading role in their opening stand of 93 and was eventually caught by Roston Chase.

The only surprise was that Root top-edged a catch to fine leg off Alzarri Joseph as he eased towards the winning line but, perhaps fittingly, that left captains new and old – Brook and Buttler – to secure victory, Buttler doing so with a huge six.

England rediscovering the rhythms of 50-over batting has been welcome.

Their bowling has also impressed at times in this series but this showing proved there remains significant room for improvement.

The recalled Evin Lewis pulled Brydon Carse to mid-wicket, Brandon King drove Matthew Potts to point and Shai Hope pulled Saqib Mahmood to deep square leg all within the first powerplay – an opening 10 overs delayed by 30 minutes after the Windies were stuck in traffic – but those wickets came amid the regular loss of line and length by England's pace trio.

Left-hander Rutherford, who missed the first two matches of the series because of his commitments at the Indian Premier League, played a lone hand either side of the rain to rebuild as Rashid dismissed Keacy Carty for 29 and Justin Greaves and Chase in consecutive deliveries.

Ultimately, Rutherford was caught at long-on mistiming a pull off Carse, leaving West Indies seven down in the 28th over with the innings still in danger.

Motie, having earlier hit Rashid's hat-trick ball for six, chanced his arm with a counter-attack and ended up adding 91 in 68 balls with Alzarri Joseph.

The overs of England's fifth bowler were again made up by part-time spinners Will Jacks and Jacob Bethell, who were largely innocuous while Carse, Potts and Mahmood struggled for penetration with the older ball.

That, though, is a problem for another day.

Brook's rebuild is under way while West Indies, who will be able to call on all-rounders Jason Holder and Andre Russell plus former captain Rovman Powell in their ranks, will hope to be more competitive in the T20s.

Harry Brook, speaking to Test Match Special about winning his first series: "It feels awesome. This last game, we played beautifully on quite a good pitch. We didn't let them get too many runs against us and finished it off beautifully. Naturally, we just wanted to concentrate on our skills and execute as well as possible.

"Jamie Smith played awesome, everyone knows how well he can play. He got man of the match which is a nice little touch for him."

Player of the match Jamie Smith: "It was nice to come out here and play aggressive. It's the way the team want me to play, to set up a nice start.

"I felt like having missed out in the last game, I wanted to prove that it is a position that I can make my own. I wanted to push out my chest out a bit and say that I'm good enough to open the batting."

West Indies captain Shai Hope: "There's always some positives if we dissect it. There's a lot of things that we can take from the series and a lot of things that we can improve on.

"We need to take the positives into the T20 series because we can't change the past. We need to come out all guns blazing in the T20 series."