Jonny Bairstow made his second century of the series
Jonny Bairstow made a career-best unbeaten 141 and Jason Roy 96 as England cruised to a nine-wicket win over West Indies in the fifth and final one-day international in Southampton.
England’s spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid helped to restrict the tourists to 288-6 on a batting-friendly surface.
After his opening stand of 156 with Roy, Bairstow then completed his century from 90 balls. Joe Root added 46 as the hosts secured a 4-0 series-win.
The victory ends a fine summer in ODI cricket for England, who have won 11 of their last 13 completed matches and also secured series wins over Ireland and South Africa. They also reached the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy.
England’s openers shared a century stand for the second time in successive ODIs for the first time since Nick Knight and Marcus Trescothick did so in 2003.
Roy also compiled his second consecutive fifty after replacing Alex Hales at the top of the order.
The Surrey batsman endured a difficult start to the summer in the Champions Trophy and paid the price when he was dropped in favour of Bairstow, but has made the most of his recall.
He found the boundary with ease, stroking 11 fours and a six in his innings, but just as impressive was the understanding between himself and Bairstow, as the pair regularly converted obvious singles into twos.
England raced to 71 runs from the first 10 overs, and to 100 within 15, before Roy departed just four short of his century.
In what was a chanceless innings, Bairstow registered the highest score by an Englishman against West Indies in ODIs, beating the 130 by Trescothick in 2004.
Root completed the run-chase with a six straight down the ground and in doing so became the third-fastest player to reach 4,000 ODI runs. In his 91st innings, only Hashim Amla (81 innings) and Viv Richards (88 innings) have reached the milestone quicker than the England Test captain.
On the latest date in the year an international has been played in the United Kingdom, Chris Gayle got the tourists off to a flying start. The opener, in what may be his last international appearance in England, scored 40 from 29 balls.
Gayle caused problems for Jake Ball, hitting the seamer for 34 off six consecutive balls across two overs, before he was dismissed by a slower ball from debutant Tom Curran.
Ball, who is in England’s Ashes squad, finished with figures of 1-94 off 10 overs – the third worst by an England bowler in an ODI.
After the explosive start by West Indies, England’s spin duo of Moeen (1-36) and Rashid (1-42) worked in tandem to restrict the flow of runs, with the Windies failing to find the boundary between the 10th and 31st overs.
Each batsman in West Indies’ top eight reached double figures, with Shai Hope scoring 72 and debutant Sunil Ambris (38 off 27) and Ashley Nurse (31 off 12) accelerating the innings late on, but the tourists were short of a score to trouble the hosts.
They finish the tour having also lost the Test series 2-1, but were victorious in the sole T20. (BBC Sport)
