Strauss helps England to square ODI series against Windies

Barbados (West Indies), Mar.30 (ANI): England cricket skipper Andrew Strauss stroked an aggressive 79 of 61 balls to help his team inflict a crushing victory in the fourth one-day international against the West Indies here on Sunday.

Strauss made mincemeat of a Duckworth/Lewis target of 135 from 20 overs following some heavy rain and England won by nine wickets. He thrashed Lionel Baker for four successive fours and his six off Darren Sammy was plundered flat over long on with immense force.

The Sun reports that Strauss and Ravi Bopara put on 108 for the first wicket - Bopara hoisted a six on to the roof of the stand at mid-wicket that was the biggest blow of the day.

The series is now level at 2-2 with the decider in St Lucia next Friday.

Strauss said: "After what happened last Friday, we all felt the responsibility to bounce back. It hasn't been a particularly satisfactory winter for all sorts of reasons but it is good to see the spirit is still strong."

"Friday is an opportunity to go home with some silverware which would be very satisfying and give us some momentum going into the summer," he added. (ANI)