England thrashed the West Indies by eight wickets as Joe Root’s century and lethal spells from pace bowlers Jofra Archer and Mark Wood inspired the hosts on Friday.
Root smashed 100 not out from 94 balls as England easily reached 213-2 after Archer’s 3-30 and Mark Wood’s 3-18 helped dismiss the West Indies for 212 in Southampton.
Tournament favourites England have won three of their four group matches as they chase a place in the semi-finals, but injuries to Jason Roy and captain Eoin Morgan cast a shadow over their latest victory.
Earlier, Joe Root struck twice against the West Indies as England kept the Caribbean side in check in their World Cup clash on Friday. West Indies managed to put 212 on the board losing all ten of their wickets.
England pacemen Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer kept things tight early on, restricting Jason Holder’s side to just eight runs off the first five overs in Southampton.
Opener Chris Gayle then found his range, smashing Archer for two straight fours, but in the next over he sliced down to third man off Woakes, only for a sprawling Mark Wood to put down the chance after seemingly having the ball under control.
The left-handed Gayle, who has previously indicated this will be his last World Cup, has now overtaken Viv Richards as the leading scorer in one-day internationals between England and the West Indies.
But England ensured they did not pay too heavily for their miss, with Jonny Bairstow making no mistake on the square leg boundary after Gayle did not quite get hold of a Liam Plunkett short delivery.
Two balls later West Indies were in deep trouble at 55-3 when Shai Hope was trapped in front of the wicket by Wood.
Nicholas Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer combined to put on 89 runs for the fourth wicket before Test captain Root struck, catching Hetmyer off his own bowling for 39.
Root, only an occasional bowler, then struck again in his next over when West Indies captain Jason Holder (nine) could only pop the ball up for another caught and bowled immediately after a six over long-off.
Andre Russell battered two sixes off leg spinner Adil Rashid in three balls, but then did not quite get hold of a Wood short ball and was caught by Woakes at deep midwicket.
When Pooran was caught behind for 63 by Jos Buttler off Archer, West Indies were 202-7 in the 40th over.
Jason Roy, who scored a century in England’s win against Bangladesh, pulled up with an injury and had to leave the field.
It was announced he would not field for the rest of the innings, suffering with tightness to his left hamstring and therefore cannot bat higher than number seven.
Three of the previous four matches at the World Cup in England and Wales have been wrecked by rain, with teams forced to share a point apiece.
All 10 teams play each other in the round-robin phase to determine the four semi-finalists.
Squads:
England: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Liam Plunkett, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Mark Wood.
West Indies: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Evin Lewis, Shai Hope (wk), 4 Nicholas Pooran, 5 Shimron Hetmeyer, 6 Jason Holder (capt), 7 Andre Russell, 8 Carlos Brathwaite, 9 Shannon Gabriel, 10 Sheldon Cottrell, 11 Oshane Thomas
