England maneuvered their way to a tense three-wicket victory over the West Indies in the second One Day International in Antigua.
Nottinghamshire’s Stuart Broad and Michael Lumb both contributed in the second innings, successfully chasing the West Indies’ total of 159 with 31 balls to spare.
Good work from the English spinners restricted the hosts, debutant Stephen Parry claimed 3-32 with the other seven shared across Joe Root, Broad, James Tredwell, Moeen Ali and Tim Bresnan.
“It was a perfect bowling display to restrict the West Indies to 159,” he said.
“Our spinners looked dangerous, we took wickets throughout and the work we put into our fielding really showed.
“We were hunting in the ring, stopping singles and taking catches. That’s what we’ve been aiming to do.
Even after restricting their opponents to such a total, England struggled to capitalise. Michael Lumb continued his good weekend, high-scoring for England with 39, while Ravi Bopara (38) and Broad (28) saw the contest home after a middle-order collapse. Luke Wright and Jos Buttler failed to score, while Ben Stokes chose to walk despite being given not out by the umpire.
“We got over the line, and that’s the most important thing. Certainly I would have been hugely disappointed if we had been 2-0 down after some of the cricket we’ve played,” said Broad.
“We were looking for the top order to play its way through and take responsibility. We didn’t quite do that, and we had a Champions’ Trophy-like wobble in the middle.
“The win should give the changing room a huge amount of confidence, a huge amount of belief.”
The three-match series will be settled on Wednesday, ahead of a pair of Twenty 20 matches before the squad travel to Bangladesh for the ICC World T20. Broad insisted that he has only set his sights on the next match, rather than across the world.
“We haven’t won two games in a row since July, and that has to be our aim,” he said.
“You play 50-over cricket to win world cups and you have to get used to playing in pressure scenarios.
“We’ve probably fallen short in the pressure scenarios in the past year but you have to go through these moments to realise where you need to play better.”