ST GEORGE’S –In a pow­er­ful dis­play of all-round crick­et, Eng­land’s Young Li­ons roared back to life, se­cur­ing a com­pre­hen­sive 130-run vic­to­ry over West In­dies Un­der-19s in the third Youth One-Day In­ter­na­tion­al (ODI) at the Na­tion­al Crick­et Sta­di­um in Grena­da on Fri­day.

The re­sound­ing win in­jects fresh dra­ma in­to the sev­en-match se­ries, which the West In­dies still lead 2-1.

Asked to bat first, Eng­land post­ed a com­pet­i­tive to­tal of 249 for 9 from their 50 overs, built on the back of a con­sis­tent team bat­ting ef­fort.

They got off to a de­cent start with 43 runs on the board in­side 11 overs, be­fore medi­um pac­er Matthew Miller sent back open­er, Isaac Mo­hammed, for 18.

Open­er Ben Dawkins helped him­self to a handy 41 runs, but the Ja­maican left-arm wrist spin­ner Vi­tel Lawes picked up the next three wick­ets, in­clud­ing Dawkins, to peg back the vis­i­tors.

While no sin­gle bat­ter man­aged a half-cen­tu­ry, valu­able con­tri­bu­tions helped to spruce up the Eng­land to­tal, as Caleb Fal­con­er top-scored with a pa­tient 43, with Ral­phie Al­bert weigh­ing in with 37, and Ben Mayes 36.

Lawes was the pick of the bowlers with an im­pres­sive 4 for 30 while Ja­keem Pol­lard pro­vid­ed able sup­port, chip­ping in with two wick­ets.

The hosts’ run chase, how­ev­er, nev­er found its foot­ing, as the Eng­lish bowl­ing at­tack, led by their spin trio, sliced through the West In­di­an bat­ting line­up with clin­i­cal pre­ci­sion.

The in­nings col­lapsed to 47 for 5 ear­ly on, and the home side could on­ly muster 119 all out in just 30.3 overs.

Farhan Ahmed 3-22, Al­bert 3-24, and Jack Nel­son 3-26 shared the spoils, ex­ploit­ing the con­di­tions per­fect­ly to dis­man­tle the bat­ting or­der.

On­ly Matthew Miller, 37 not out, and open­er Tanez Fran­cis, 34, of­fered any sig­nif­i­cant re­sis­tance in a dis­ap­point­ing bat­ting dis­play for the re­gion­al youth side.

The two teams will meet again at the same venue on Mon­day for the fourth ODI.

Sum­marised scores

ENG­LAND 249-9 in 50 overs (Caleb Fal­con­er 43, Ben Dawkins 41, Ral­phie Al­bert 37, Ben Mayes 36; Vi­tel Lawes 4-30, Ja­keem Pol­lard 2-41).

WEST IN­DIES 119 in 30.3 overs (Matthew Miller 37 not out, Tanex Fran­cis 34, Farhan Ahmed 3-22, Ral­phie Al­bert 3-24, Jack Nel­son 3-26).

Eng­land Un­der-19s won by 130 runs.

CMC