Andrew Strauss hit his third one-day international hundred, but England still went down to a 21-run defeat at the hands of the West Indies at the Guyana National Stadium on Sunday.
The captain made 105 from 129 balls as England, chasing 265 for victory, were dismissed for 243 in 48.2 overs to allow West Indies to draw level at 1-1 in the five-match series.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul scored 112 not out from 134 balls to lead West Indies to 264 for eight from their 50 overs.
Strauss reached his hundred from 126 balls with a drive through cover for two off Kieron Pollard, but England lost wickets steadily.
Their best stands were 50 between Strauss and Owais Shah for the third wicket, and 59 between the England captain and Dmitri Mascarenhas for the sixth.
Mascarenhas made 29 and Shah made 22 and were the only other batsmen that passed 20. Dwayne Bravo and Pollard both collected two wickets for West Indies.
Earlier, England, particularly Paul Collingwood and Mascarenhas, restricted West Indies to 57 runs in the last 10 overs and collected four cheap wickets to scupper the home team’s hunt for quick late runs.
The tourists had been under pressure from Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan when they put on 133 from 177 balls for the third wicket, after West Indies elected to bat and lost Lendl Simmons for a duck and fellow opener Gayle, for 20, inside the first six overs.
Urged on by the largest crowd for an international match in Guyana, Chanderpaul and Sarwan hit 74 from 89 balls.
But James Anderson had Sarwan caught at deep mid-off in the 35th over, and Collingwood and Mascarenhas prevailed in the closing overs to limit the damage of the West Indies batsmen.
Anderson captured three for 37 from nine overs, Collingwood took three for 49 from 10 overs, and Mascarenhas bagged two for 53 from 10 overs.
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