Completely different format, usual ache for England this most chastening of winters.
Precisely per week after Ashes humiliation was accomplished 48 hours forward of schedule in a flurry of rash strokes in Hobart, a shadow Twenty20 facet quick-stepped to catastrophe originally of a brand new bid by Eoin Morgan to unite world white-ball belts. Such ineptitude is clearly not the protect of the Check crew.
For some time it regarded just like the floodlights wouldn't be required as Jason Holder, who completed with career-best figures of 4 for seven, and Sheldon Cottrell dismantled the highest order. It received higher however not a lot as West Indies cantered to a nine-wicket win.
The begin to England's innings actually supplied a stark distinction to that of Wednesday's warm-up win over a Barbados XI when Jason Roy crunched 100 off simply 36 balls, reaching his landmark along with his tenth six. A monstrous 92 runs got here through the powerplay.
This time, Roy managed to clear the ropes simply as soon as as the primary six overs returned an anaemic 26 for 4 after Kieron Pollard gained the toss and requested his bowlers to take advantage of a recent pitch.
With the ball behaving capriciously off it and displaying apparent indicators of variable bounce, England mustered 39 runs on the midway stage of their scheduled 20 overs - batters both slicing it into West Indian arms or within the case of Sam Billings, a member of each losses prior to now seven days, permitting it to go him and enter these of wicketkeeper Shai Hope.
When Liam Dawson marked his first T20 cap for 4 years with a suicidal name for a single, they had been six wickets down one supply into the second half of the innings.
With the tail left for firm, Morgan now not bided his time. Nonetheless, he fell instantly after seeking to launch a counter-attack, selecting out additional cowl the ball after launching Romario Shepherd for six over long-off.
At that stage it regarded as if England's lowest ever rating of 80 was beneath risk.
However from a place of 49 for seven, Chris Jordan, who went to high school a few miles down the street from the Kensington Oval, started placing the ball as cleanly as anybody, hitting three sixes in a high rating of 28 earlier than succumbing to sluggish left-armer Fabian Allen trying a fourth.
Shortly afterwards, there have been ironic cheers from an English dominated, Covid-restricted crowd of round 5,000 when Adil Rashid punched a single down the bottom off Allen to deliver up three figures within the penultimate over, earlier than Holder completed off the innings with two wickets in as many deliveries.
England have travelled to the Caribbean with out multi-format gamers like Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Mark Wooden and misplaced one other member of their facet eradicated from final yr's World Cup on the semi-final stage when Liam Livingstone was dominated out of this weekend's double header by means of sickness.
Forward of this sequence, Morgan stated these 5 matches had been extra about growing England's bench power than getting ready for this October's second such match in 12 months.
And in West Indies they're going through a facet who've hardly pulled up bushes since they gained their second world title through Carlos Brathwaite's quarter-hour of fame in 2016.
To this point have they fallen, the truth is, that they will now be discovered wedged between the respective would possibly of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, in tenth place within the official ICC standings.
The previous guard have been ditched in a bid to arrest the slide. Certainly, solely captain Pollard, his deputy Nicholas Pooran and spinner Akeal Hosein stay from the XI that marked their title defence final autumn by being dismissed for simply 55 by England in Dubai.
Brandon King, very a lot the way forward for Windies cricket, orchestrated the emphatic turnaround in fortunes with an unbeaten half-century, unperturbed by commonly being defeated throughout a powerful Dawson spell of 4-0-12-0 and pounding something that was off line.
England's solitary success got here when Rashid lured Hope out of his floor to terminate the primary wicket stand at 52, precisely midway to the Windies' underwhelming goal.