England captain Eoin Morgan refused to let emotion get the better of him after a crushing defeat at the hands of the West Indies, insisting he would not indulge "the blame game".
The tourists were torn apart in unforgiving fashion in the fifth one-day international, bundled out for 113 in St Lucia before Chris Gayle's latest masterclass of power-hitting hurried the hosts over the line in just 12.1 overs, an unwanted new low.
The winning margin was officially seven wickets, but that scarcely begins to tell the story of England's capitulation. Across both innings the number of scheduled deliveries that went unbowled was an astonishing 358.
Victory would have secured a 10th successive series for England – a proud record interrupted by a standalone loss to Scotland – but, instead of underlining their status as World Cup favourites, they drew 2-2 and laid bare their frailties.
Morgan, though, did his best to take the heat out of his post-match analysis.
"Guys need to have quite a logical objective outlook on today's game. If we get frustrated and upset and start to throw things around the changing room that's a defeatist attitude and a blame game, which is not what we're about," he said.
"It was pretty much a one-horse race and we didn't deserve to win the game. It was a terrible batting performance which is a disappointing way to end the series, but I would like to think we could learn from our mistakes and look forward rather than back."
Gayle's devastating onslaught after the turnaround made England look somewhat silly, with the veteran motoring to 77 in 27 deliveries and striking nine more sixes to extend his record tally in the series to 39.
But there is no doubting the game was sacrificed by the batsmen. They never began coming to terms with a springy surface, repeatedly beaten by extra lift off the pitch as the West Indies' tall pace attack made hay.
Morgan, Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes all fell to mis-hit pulls, while Alex Hales and Joe Root were caught after failing to get on top of cuts.
Morgan, who predicted low, slow turners on arrival in the Caribbean, accepted his side had proved unable to evolve their approach when presented with the opposite.
"Extra bounce is not something we come up against very often. We struggled massively to adapt," he said.
"It was evident from the first two overs...you could see it from the changing room. We just didn't adapt. We need to get better when we come up against different conditions. It was a surface that we rarely come up against and we found it extremely difficult to score without taking quite a big risk."
Gayle was the rightful man of the series, scoring 424 runs in four innings at a strike-rate of 134.17 and doling out some truly exceptional entertainment.
Plans to retire at the end of the World Cup are beginning to look ill-timed, despite the fact he turns 40 in September.
"Everything stands as it is, but you'll just have to wait and see," he said.
"My mindset is that, even when I'm 60, I'll still think I can do it. I'll still think I can score runs against the best bowlers in the world. That will never change, it's just the body which is always the worrying part for me.
"It's been an honour to wear the crest and entertain the people around the Caribbean as well as the people abroad."
