BIRM­ING­HAM, Eng­land – Eng­land de­liv­ered a dom­i­nant per­for­mance to thrash the West In­dies by 238 runs in the open­ing One-Day In­ter­na­tion­al here at Edg­bas­ton on Thurs­day.

The com­pre­hen­sive vic­to­ry snapped a sev­en-match los­ing streak in the for­mat and hand­ed new cap­tain Har­ry Brook a dream start to his full-time lead­er­ship tenure.

Sent in to bat, Eng­land post­ed a mam­moth 400-8, their high­est-ever ODI to­tal at home against the West In­dies, thanks to ex­plo­sive half-cen­turies from Ja­cob Bethell, who scored 82 off 53 balls, Ben Duck­ett 60, Joe Root 57, and Brook 58.

The vis­i­tors’ bowl­ing at­tack strug­gled through­out, as the seam­ers found it hard to hit a length, and the spin­ners could not slow down the free-scor­ing Eng­lish bat­ters

On­ly Jay­den Seales with a work­man­like 4-84 man­aged no­table suc­cess amid the on­slaught.

The West In­dies’ chase nev­er gained mo­men­tum, col­laps­ing to 162 all out in just 32.5 overs.

On­ly Kea­cy Car­ty, 22 and cap­tain Shai Hope, 25, of­fered brief re­sis­tance be­fore a late, en­ter­tain­ing 29 not out from Seales spared fur­ther em­bar­rass­ment.

Eng­land’s seam­ers Saqib Mah­mood 3-28 and Jamie Over­ton 3-41 wreaked hav­oc, while Brook took five catch­es in a com­mand­ing field­ing dis­play.

The vic­to­ry marked Eng­land’s sec­ond-largest win by runs in ODIs, just be­hind their 242-run de­mo­li­tion of Aus­tralia in 2018. Bethell, the 21-year-old all-rounder, was named Play­er of the Match for his blis­ter­ing knock and a cru­cial 44-ball, 98-run sev­enth-wick­et stand with Will Jacks, who made 39.

Eng­land’s in­nings set the tone ear­ly, with Duck­ett and Jamie Smith 37 rac­ing to 59 in the first six overs.

De­spite two spec­tac­u­lar catch­es from Bran­don King dis­miss­ing Smith and Ros­ton Chase re­mov­ing Duck­ett, Eng­land’s mid­dle or­der piled on the runs.

Bethell’s bru­tal hit­ting, in­clud­ing eight fours and five six­es, stole the show be­fore he fell short of a maid­en cen­tu­ry.

The West In­dies’ re­ply fal­tered im­me­di­ate­ly, los­ing open­ers Justin Greaves for four and King 10, in­side four overs.

Mah­mood and Over­ton dis­man­tled the mid­dle or­der as the re­gion­al side found them­selves at one stage in a spot of both­er at 66 for four in the 12th over.

The Bar­ba­di­an-born Bethell al­so chipped in with the ball, send­ing back Jew­el An­drew for 8 to cap off a fine per­for­mance. Seales’ late fire­works were mere con­so­la­tion as Eng­land sealed a crush­ing win to go 1-0 up in the three-match se­ries.

The sec­ond ODI takes place at Trent Bridge on Sun­day.

(CMC)

SUM­MARISED SCORES

ENG­LAND 400-8 in 50 overs (Ja­cob Bethell 82, Ben Duck­ett 60, Har­ry Brook 58, Joe Root 57; Jay­den Seales 4-84, Justin Greaves 2-68, Alzarri Joseph 2-69) vs WEST IN­DIES 162 all out in 26.2 overs (Jay­den Seales 29 not out, Shai Hope 25, Kea­cy Car­ty 22; Jamie Over­ton 3-22, Saqib Mah­mood 3-32).