Moeen Ali: West Indies defeat shows England must improve on sluggish pitches

Moeen Ali admitted England must improve on the type of sluggish pitches that have confronted them in their Twenty20 tour of the Caribbean after the West Indies claimed a 3-2 series win.

While Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone each took two for 17, with the pair and fellow spinner Moeen taking a combined four for 54 in Sunday’s decider, England’s fast bowlers were peppered all over the Kensington Oval.

Reece Topley and Chris Jordan conceded 66 in the final four overs as Rovman Powell’s 35 not out from 17 balls and Kieron Pollard’s unbeaten 41 off 25 deliveries in an unbroken 74-run stand propelled the Windies to 179 for four.

An England side missing several regulars including Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes due to their Ashes exertions succumbed to 162 all out as Jason Holder finished proceedings with four wickets in four balls.

But Moeen believes these five matches have been a useful exercise for an England side with several inexperienced members, saying at the presentation ceremony: “I think overall it’s been a great learning.

“These conditions we’ve struggled on. We’re good on flat wickets but these are the conditions we want to get better on going forward.

“Batting and bowling, they were smarter than us. I thought the West Indies were the better team, particularly (on Sunday) and overall. We didn’t adapt well to these conditions but we played some good cricket.

“It was a great series and a great spectacle for everybody. We thoroughly enjoyed it, but we didn’t win so it’s a bit disappointing.”

England’s death bowling has come under the microscope recently as they have routinely struggled to pin down the Windies batters at the back end of an innings in Barbados.

Moeen, though, believes neither Jordan nor