Chris Gayle cracked 80 from 43 balls to embarrass England in the third one-day international on Friday as West Indies reached their target of just 117 with almost 30 overs left.

West Indies won by nine wickets after a one-sided contest in Barbados was sealed by Gayle’s brutal exhibition of clean hitting – he struck five boundaries and eight sixes. His opening partner Lendl Simmons was on just eight at the fall of Gayle. Simmons finished 14 not out.

Gayle took 24 from one over bowled by Dimitri Mascarenhas which went 4, 6, 6, 0, 6, 2. It would have been exciting viewing for the Kolkata Knight Riders – Gayle’s Indian Premier League franchise who he will be joining next month in South Africa. Whether he would have played in the same carefree manner if West Indies were chasing a more challenging total we will never know.

Gayle was eventually bowled by James Anderson as he looked for more quick runs. Stuart Broad bowled Ramnaresh Sarwan for ten minutes before the win.

The hammering began from early on when England’s batsmen crumbled to 68-8. Only a top score innings of 36 by Mascarenhas and 17 from Gareth Batty managed to see England to three figures. 

They were 117 all out in 41.3 overs from their allotted 44. Dwayne Bravo (4-19 from seven overs) and fast bowler Fidel Edwards (3-28 from 8.3) – claiming all his wickets from short balls – wreaked most havoc.

England’s batsmen failed to produce on a surface that was fast and bouncy but perfectly true for batting on. The wickets of openers Andrew Strauss and Ravi Bopara, both out pulling balls from Edwards, demonstrated how England misread the situation and played the kind of rash strokes that might have been more successful on slower, lower pitches they have played on recently in Trinidad and Guyana.

It has been a miserable winter so far for England having lost a Test series 1-0 in India and going down by the same score-line in the West Indies Test rubber, with five one-day defeats in between in India. Their current form would suggest they do not look like turning this series around either.

Even the return of fit-again all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, who came in for his friend Steve Harmison, did not provide any inspiration. He scored a duck.

West Indies now lead the five-match series 2-1 with games in Barbados and St. Lucia remaining.