Stuttering England set West Indies 244 to win

England stumbled to 243 all out after none of their batsmen managed to score a half-century in their must-win World Cup Group B match against West Indies on Thursday.

With their quarter-final hopes hanging in balance, skipper Andrew Strauss decided to bat first but the English batsmen squandered some good starts and folded in 48.4 overs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

England resisted the temptation to drop Matt Prior (21) down the order and sent him to open with Andrew Strauss (31).

The move seemed to have paid off until Andre Russell (4-49) struck to remove both in quick succession just when the partnership had started blooming.

None of these setbacks, however, seemed to affect next man in Jonathan Trott (47) who hit three boundaries off the first five balls he faced from Russell.

Trott looked in fantastic touch as boundaries continued to flow from his blade but Devendra Bishoo (3-34) could not be denied a memorable debut in one-day internationals.

The 25-year-old leg-spinner had his first victim in Trott who meekly chipped the ball to mid-wicket and Bishoo dealt a massive blow when he had Eoin Morgan (seven) caught behind, trying to play a cheeky reverse sweep.

Like all top order batsmen, Ian Bell (27) also got the start but could not convert it into anything significant, losing his stump to a Kemar Roach express delivery.

Down the order, Luke Wright (44) chipped in with a cameo but just when his team needed him to hang around, he fell to Bishoo.

England made three changes for the match they have to win to stay in the hunt for a quarter-final place.

They brought in Chris Tremlett, Wright and James Tredwell for James Anderson, Paul Collingwood and Ajmal Shahzad.

West Indies also made a couple of changes with a fit-again Chris Gayle replacing Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Bishoo coming in place of Nikita Miller.