The only way is up as England seek to reboot their once-glorious white-ball fortunes, but on the evidence of a deeply one-sided first ODI against West Indies, the journey to the 2027 World Cup will be long, arduous and - perhaps most significantly - unfamiliar to a new generation of cricketers whose lack of experience in 50-over cricket was all too plain to see in Antigua. The format's rhythms weren't quite such a mystery to the man who gunned them down, however. Evin Lewis had been absent from West Indies' ODI plans for more than three years until last weekend, when he announced his second coming with a 61-ball century in Sri Lanka. Now he added a startlingly violent 94 from 69 balls, making light of a two-paced pitch and a stodgy outfield to blaze eight sixes - one for each of the wickets by which his team eventually won. It might even have been nine for nine had he connected properly with the shot that got him out, an inside-out slap to wide long-off, with victory already in the bag.

The result had scarcely been in doubt after Gudakesh Motie's four-wicket haul had wrecked England's hopes of a competitive total, but the only real challenge to West Indies' dominance was the rain, which arrived at the end of the 15th over of their chase to briefly raise the prospect of a very unjust washout. West Indies were 81 for 0 by that point - with Lewis himself on 51 - but after an hour-long delay and the loss of 15 overs and 53 runs from the target, the skies cleared sufficiently for justice to be served on a red-raw England line-up featuring no fewer than four debutants. The power and poise of the run-chase was at total odds with the tentative fare that had preceded it. Whereas England had had to wait until the 32nd over of their innings before their stand-in captain Liam Livingstone struck the first of their two sixes on the night, Lewis himself outdid that tally four-fold, having waited just 11 deliveries before hoisting the lively pace of John Turner over the ropes at deep backward square.

Even when Adil Rashid did him in flight in his second over, Lewis' commitment to the aggressive option allowed him to find enough hang-time to leave deep midwicket sprawling for his fifth six in the space of 13 overs. He then followed that up by whipping Sam Curran through backward square for his first four of the night, and after bringing up his fifty from 46 balls, he jogged through for one more single before the rain break to reach his 2000th ODI run. Lewis' sidekick Brandon King offered a more earthbound assessment of the tricky batting conditions, grinding along to 30 from 56 balls as Jofra Archer and Turner, making his long-awaited international bow, repeatedly harassed his outside edge in a lively but unrewarded powerplay gambit. King's torturous stay might have ended in the first over after the rain delay, but Livingstone's half-tracker lbw was found to have pitched outside leg. Instead, he fell to perhaps his most emphatic shot of the night - a full-blooded full through a Jacob Bethell long-hop that picked out deep square leg to end a 118-run opening stand.

The damage, however, had long since been done, however, leaving Keacy Carty and Shai Hope to wrap up victory with 24.1 overs of their original allocation left unused. Even allowing for the absence of so many key personnel through injury and Test commitments, England's shortcomings had been glaring in the extreme. After losing the toss and being asked to bat first, their innings was characterised by timid accumulation, reminiscent of their off-colour displays at the 2023 World Cup, interspersed with moments of frustration, with the majority of their wickets falling to misjudged attempts to clear the inner ring. By the 21st over, England were flatlining at 93 for 4, with each of the top four falling for scores between 17 and 27 - none of them at a strike-rate quicker than 82 - as if overawed by the responsibility of batting for more than twice as long as a standard T20 innings.

West Indies did bowl with nous from the outset, not least Jayden Seales, who shrugged off a wicketless tour of Sri Lanka earlier this month by claiming both of England's openers inside his first five overs. The first to fall was Phil Salt, whose third-ball blaze through the covers belied a notably sluggish outfield that would add to the sense of an innings with no momentum, and would ultimately vindicate Lewis' decision to take the aerial route as much as possible. On 18 from 29 balls, Salt tried just that, but his toe-ended drive was well caught by Alzarri Joseph, running back in the covers, as his innings came to an end inside the powerplay for the 18th time in 23 ODIs. Will Jacks, promoted to opener in the absence of Ben Duckett and the injured Jos Buttler, then produced a near identical knock of 19 from 27, eventually skying an attempted launch off Seales to Motie at mid-on, to leave England neither here nor there at 46 for 2 in the 11th over.

Matthew Forde's lack of extreme pace was scarcely any less effective on a receptive surface that offered grip and bounce to his cutters. Jordan Cox projected confidence at No.3 in the first act of his extended international audition, with the prospect of a Test debut in New Zealand looming next month, but then ruined the impression with a horrid hack to deep third, while Bethell - another Test debutant-in-waiting - looked sparky as he kept the strike rotating, but also fell to an ungainly slog into the covers to hand Forde his second. Only the team's relative old stagers - Livingstone and his de facto deputy Curran - found the gumption to thrive briefly in a fifth-wicket stand of 72. But their endeavours were derailed by a familiar recent nemesis.

Motie's wily offerings had been instrumental in West Indies' twin series wins this time last year, and sure enough, he accounted for the senior men - most crucially Livingstone, who had just begun to step up his tempo with a calculated assault on the offspin of Roston Chase. But, after being given a life on 44 as the returning Shimron Hetmyer spilled a simple chance at short midwicket off Chase's final delivery, Livingstone then popped a return catch back to Motie four runs later. When Curran holed out to long-on for 37, the tail came as meekly as the rest. Joseph had been expensive in his initial spell - not helped by some lax work in the outfield - but bounced back well with the late wickets of Archer and Rashid, England's leading ODI run-scorer in this deeply inexperienced squad, who extended that lead by a further 15 runs to drag England's total past 200. Not even the onset of the Antiguan rain could delay the inevitable for long.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan