The venue was Kensington Oval, Bridgetown and the star of the game a Barbadian, but former Combermerian Christopher Jordan was representing England, leading them to an exciting five-run win over the West Indies.
The final game of the three-match series provided a consolation win for the English but it was West Indies captain and Man Of The Series Darren Sammy who lifted the trophy earned by virtue of a 2-1 series win.
The man of the day and Player Of The Match though was undoubtedly Jordan who slammed an unbeaten 27 off eight balls and took three for 39, all on all the ground he called home when he represented Barbados as recently as a year ago.
It was especially satisfying for him to perform so well in front of family and friends.
“It was a very enjoyable game to play in the place where I grew up. Obviously to put in a performance like that for England it’s probably one I’ll remember for a very long time. I’ve been working on my batting quite a lot recently.
“I’ve been striking [the ball] fairly well. Just glad that I could make an impact at the end there,” Jordan said at the Press briefing following the match.
“Some of my friends and family were watching me play international cricket for the first time so this was a special occasion for them as well.
“As I said I was glad I could put in that performance for England and for them.
“It was pretty surreal at first. I took that momentum from my batting into my bowling and it probably showed at the end,” Jordan said as he reflected on the penultimate over he bowled in which he knocked back the stumps of Denesh Ramdin before squaring off against Darren Sammy who struck him for a couple of boundaries.
Despite the loss, West Indies coach Ottis Gibson remained upbeat on the eve of the team’s departure for Bangladesh to defend the world T20 title.
“I don’t see it [the loss to England] as a setback. Obviously we wanted to win. When we came this morning the intention was to try and win all three games.
“It’s been a long time since we have won three games in a row in any format so we came with the intention to sweep the series,” Gibson told the media.
“England came hard at us. They scored nearly 100 runs in the first ten overs but then we came back really well in the last ten overs and they only scored 60-odd runs I think. That kept us in the game a little bit.
“We lost wickets too early but when you look at where we were, to fight back and take it all the way down to the last ball with Chris [Gayle] sitting in the pavilion not playing, losing is not a nice thing, but we can look at the positives that came out of losing today,” Gibson said.
“It shows us that once we take care of the important stages of the game how dangerous we can be as a side. So we move on from here full of confidence that we can go on and do something really special in Bangladesh,” said the coach.
