England captain Jos Buttler ‘proud’ in defeat as his own worrying form continues in West Indies

The England captain failed to register a single half-century in the World Cup and was dismissed for just three runs at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium after a reverse-sweep attempt hit his glove and carried through to Alick Athanze at slip.

England set a respectable 326-run target in the first of three one-day internationals but were beaten by four wickets after a stunning century from Shai Hope.

“You always want to play well,” Buttler said on TNT Sports. “It has been a while since I played to my best so I need to keep working hard and trust it will come back.”

Despite the personal disappointment, Buttler insisted there were positives to take from the loss. On the back of a dismal World Cup campaign, England got off to a strong start thanks to solid contributions from Phil Salt (45), Zak Crawley (48) and Harry Brook (71) in the top half of the order.

The visitors were eventually bowled all out for 325, which looked like it might be good enough for victory until a heroic knock of 109 runs from 83 balls from West Indies captain Hope turned the match on its head and gave the hosts a series lead.

“It was a fantastic game of cricket,” Buttler said. “A lot of credit has to go to Shai Hope and Romario Shepherd.

“I thought we asked a lot of questions of them, they had a lot to do and they played really well at the back end to chase those runs down.

“I thought it was a fantastic batting effort by us. I loved the intent the guys came out with at the top. They [Salt and Jacks] really set the tone for us.

“They pegged us back a bit, we found the wicket tricky in the middle phase but it was a fantastic effort to get to that score and it needed a special innings to chase it down.”

Hope partnered Romario Shepherd to devastating effect as the hosts took an early series lead. His century was his 16th in one-day internationals and he fired a warning that there will be no let-up when the series continues on Wednesday at the same venue, live on TNT Sports.

“It was in a winning cause that’s all we play for. The stats will come but my aim is to win games and I’m happy the guys crossed the line today,” Hope said.

“I always back myself to win in any position. It’s nice to see that the guys can pull off chasing scores of 300-plus.”

On his partnership with Shepherd, he added: “He was amazing, he’s always amazing.

“He’s one of those guys you can always depend on at this level and we got the win to start the series on a high and the aim is to repeat this in the second game.”