England have lost the first of their Twenty20 internationals against the West Indies by 27 runs this evening, having made just 143 in their innings.
The hosts set a strong target of 171 for England, whose chase got off to a slow start when Michael Lumb and Alex Hales scored just one apiece in the opening over.
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The tourists suffered a big setback in the third over as Samuel Badree first took the wicket of Hales via a stumping before doing exactly the same with Luke Wright on the very next ball to put himself on a hat-trick.
He couldn't achieve that feat, but he did get a third wicket in the seventh over as Lumb top-edged a delivery to long leg, where Ravi Rampaul was waiting to catch.
That left England at 36/3, and things went from bad to worse in the very next over as Jos Buttler picked out substitute fielder Johnson Charles off the bowling of Sunil Narine.
Charles picked up another catch in the 10th over as Marlon Samuels, who reached a half-century with the bat earlier in the day, claimed the crucial wicket of Eoin Morgan for 19.
Samuels struck again in the 12th when he enticed Ben Stokes out of his crease, allowing Denesh Ramdin to rack up his third stumping of the match.
Ravi Bopara continued to give England hope with a quickfire innings, but any ambition of a victory departed with him as he was caught and bowled by Dwayne Bravo in the 15th over after making 42 off 24 deliveries.
Stuart Broad and James Tredwell were both run out in the final few overs to leave England on the brink of being bowled all out, but they managed to hold on, albeit for a 27-run defeat.
Barney Corkhill
