England's reboot splutters while Hope delivers glory

After crashing at the World Cup the England white-ball side, like a malfunctioning laptop, has been turned off and on again, rebooted and updated but, when it came to restarting, had another malfunction.

- Simon Burnton

After posting a record score on this ground they failed to defend it, losing against West Indies by four wickets, and while the batting of England's captain, Jos Buttler, continues to suggest major programming errors it was his opposite number, Shai Hope, who steered his team to victory.

Hope, who like Buttler combines wicketkeeping duties with captaincy, eased past the mark of 5,000 one-day international runs on his way to a superb century, stabilising his side through the middle overs before accelerating to the target of 326.

He eventually sealed the win by blasting three sixes off four Sam Curran deliveries, victory achieved with seven balls to spare.

But for all his calm and quality West Indies seemed to be drifting towards defeat until the arrival at the crease of Romario Shepherd shifted the game in their favour. The all-rounder had England's heads spinning as he scored 48 off 28, with Curran and Brydon Carse both losing control under the pressure he exerted. Curran in particular took terrible punishment, and his last three overs went for 19, 15 and 19 again - the last with a ball unbowled.

So much for the new dawn. It had fallen to Phil Salt and Will Jacks, two players deemed insufficiently important to merit central contracts but promised the opening berths for the duration of this series, to launch England's intended rebirth, and they threw themselves at the challenge with promising style and aggression.