LONDON — Late start, early finish.
England needed just 30 of 40 available overs to beat the West Indies by seven wickets and achieve a 3-0 clean sweep of their one-day international series at the Oval on Tuesday.
Jamie Smith's maiden ODI fifty, 64 of the 93-run opening stand in seven overs, launched England's successful assault on the rain-revised target of 246.
The game was delayed twice, first because a traffic lights outage trapped the West Indies bus long enough so the team wasn't even at the ground at the scheduled toss, and secondly for a 90-minute rain break.
Without a warmup in the nets, and forced to bat in gloomy bowler-friendly conditions, the West Indies slumped to 28-3 before the rain and 154-7 soon afterward.
That it eventually racked up 251-9 was impressive.
Sherfane Rutherford kept the innings alive with 70 off 71 balls, then teammates Gudakesh Motie and Alzarri Joseph, the Nos. 8 and 9 batters, gave their side a fighting chance with a partnership of 91 in 11.2 overs.
In the highest ever eighth-wicket ODI stand by the West Indies against England, Motie and Joseph clobbered the host with five sixes and 10 boundaries.
