The second game was much closer, but Sunday’s defeat at Cardiff meant the West Indies have fallen behind 0-2 in the current One-Day International (ODI) series against England.

After being crushed by a massive 238 runs in the first game at Trentbridge, their second-worst defeat ever, the West Indies fought hard in the second game and lost by three wickets with seven balls to spare.

Batting first this time, the Caribbean side reached a competitive 308 all out in 47.4 overs. Keacy Carty, having scored two hundreds in the recent series against Ireland, and gifted a life when he had just a single run to his name, romped to 103 before he was out stumped off Will Jacks, while Shai Hope made 78 and Brandon King 59.

Those of us following the game were likely thinking that Shai Hope and his men were well set on a path that should have led to victory. At 133/5 in the 24th over England were in dire trouble. In fact, WinViz gave the West Indies something like an 89 per cent chance of winning the game. But Joe Root, great player that he is, in partnership with Will Jacks, added 143 and led them to within 32 runs of victory. The game ended with Root not out on 166.

West Indies Coach Daren Sammy and Captain Shai Hope would no doubt have been disappointed at having squandered their position of ascendency and will surely be contemplating why they lost and what they could have done differently. In deciding what changes to make going forward, however, they might want to consider the way they deployed their bowling resources. I am thinking specifically here about the use of pacer Alzarri Joseph.

The West Indies tacticians, in their wisdom, chose to give the new ball to Matthew Forde to accompany Jaden Seales. That, I believe, was a mistake.

The better choice for that job would have been Joseph. The Antiguan is much more likely to take early wickets with the new ball. He is substantially quicker than Forde. In fact, he was easily the quickest bowler on show in Cardiff. At his best he swings the new ball away from the right-handed batter. He can also bowl a challenging short ball and therefore offers a relatively wider range of threat to the top-order batter than a relatively tame medium pacer.

Forde is an honest trier. But ask any opening batter who they’d rather face and I’m sure they’d pick the Barbadian over the much-more-menacing Joseph. And so, why would the West Indies not choose to make life at the crease less pleasant for the English openers by handing Joseph the new ball instead?

The theory, I believe, is that Forde’s gentle pace means he lacks malice when the ball stops swinging and there is little seam movement. The fear is that he’d not be very effective in the middle overs and would allow relatively free scoring during that period of the game. His best chance for success as a bowler, therefore, is with the new ball when the seam is at its proudest, allowing more swing and more movement off the surface.

Furthermore, his potential with the bat is such that he’s a useful player, and probably a game-changer batting in the lower-middle order. His recent world-record-equalling half-century against Ireland solidifies that viewpoint somewhat. He is a player Daren Sammy wants in the team.

The dilemma here, though, is that you give yourself the best chance of winning games when you take early opposition wickets. A team like England, with its phalanx of attacking high-quality batters, must be subdued if they are to be beaten. The way to do that is to set them back early, and Joseph is the bowler more likely to grab early wickets and should be given the new ball.

Having said that, Forde did capture an early wicket in Cardiff and would have had another had the umpire looked more kindly at a very good LBW appeal against eventual match-winner Joe Root — at only seven at the time.

Still, his offerings were much less challenging than the other West Indies pacers. He was the most expensive West Indies bowler, with his nine overs going for 76 runs. Joseph captured 4/31 from his 10, and while he needs to become more consistent and will not always bowl as well as he did at Cardiff, his wicket-taking capacity is substantially greater than Forde’s.

That is not to say that the West Indies would have won the game had Joseph opened the bowling. But Joseph with the new ball increases the probability of the visitors disrupting the host’s batting by inflicting early damage and the first order of business for the West Indies bowling unit in this series must be to get rid of the cream of the English batting as quickly as possible.

The West Indies’ batting was much better at Cardiff. Though their total was sizeable, it was not foreboding. They should have got more. Keacy Carty’s century was a very good effort. The right-hander from St Maarten now has four hundreds from 36 ODIs at a stunning average of just over 50. And while it might be harsh to criticise a man who made a century, he ought to be scolded — even a little.

Three balls after reaching his milestone Carty walked past a delivery from Jacks and was stumped. It seemed a rather casual dismissal. The fierce focus with which he played up until then seemed to have suddenly left him. Ideally, he ought to have been intent on ensuring that his side reached a formidable total. The man who scores a hundred has done a lot. But his team could still require more. Root realised that and carried on to his huge score. Carty should have done similarly.

Garfield Robinson is a Jamaican living in the US who writes on cricket for a few Indian and English publications. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or garfield.v.robinson@gmail.com.

West Indies’ Keacy Carty bats during the second One-Day International (ODI) cricket match between England and West Indies at Sophia Gardens cricket ground in Cardiff on June 1, 2025. Carty struck 103 runs but he couldnt prevent England from winning by three wickets to take an unassailable 2-0 series lead. (Photo: AFP)

Garfield Robinson