Swashbuckling Smith leads way as England wrap up clean sweep

A day that started for England with walks and bike rides ended with runs, and plenty of them.

- Simon Burnton

A barrage of boundaries from Jamie Smith and Ben Duckett meant the home side took control of a match that was delayed after the players got stuck in traffic and then abbreviated by rain, before an explosive cameo from Jos Buttler saw them speed to victory by seven wickets, with 62 balls to spare.

The series thus ended as it started, with a one-sided victory. The match in between was much more competitive but this was a very different display from England, whose fielding was as sharp as it had been sloppy on Sunday, and in particular from their openers, who in Cardiff had scored a combined total of nothing but yesterday each reached a rapid half century.

Smith might have travelled in by tube, but as soon as he had a bat in his hand he was motoring. On the ground the Surrey man knows better than any other he looked instantly at home, putting the West Indies bowlers through an excruciating ordeal as he hammered 64 runs off just 28 balls, 46% of which went for boundaries. The first of them came off the inside edge, but from there his bat seemed to be made entirely of middle.