Liam Livingstone insists England’s batters are prioritising ‘winning games’ over ‘meaningless’ individual milestones, as they aim to level T20 series in West Indies after Saturday’s dramatic victory in Grenada

• England beat West Indies in dramatic fashion in Grenada on Saturday
• Phil Salt hit a century, while Harry Brook finished with 31 from just seven balls
• Livingstone thinks the pair want to win games rather than achieve milestones

Liam Livingstone says the benchmark for batters in limited-overs cricket is no longer the amount of runs you score but the rate at which you score them.

Traditionally, players have tended to focus on the half-centuries and hundreds they have scored to separate themselves from their peers, but Livingstone believes the modern game has adopted a different methodology.

Promoted to number four by England ahead of Saturday’s successful chase of 223 that defeated West Indies in Grenada, the Lancashire all-rounder hit 30 off 18 balls, combining in a 70-run stand with centurion Phil Salt.

‘I couldn’t tell you how many fifties or hundreds I score any more. It’s all about how many games that you can impact and winning games for your team,’ Livingstone said, ahead of England’s attempts to square the five-match Twenty20 series at the Brian Lara Cricket Stadium on Tuesday night and send it into a decider on Thursday.

‘I’d much rather get 30 off 18 balls than 50 off 40 balls. Milestones are actually pretty meaningless in T20 cricket. You’d much rather have a team full of cameos like we had the other day because that’s what actually gets you wins in high-scoring games.

Liam Livingstone says England’s players are not bothered about individual milestones

Phil Salt smashed a stunning century on Saturday, but Livingstone thinks he will have been happier to get his side over the line for an important win

Harry Brook hit 31 off just seven balls to keep England’s hopes alive of winning the five-match T20 series

‘It was unbelievable for Salty to get a hundred but I think he’ll be much more pleased he’s seen an England team over the line by hitting sixes than getting a hundred.

‘Your strike rate is something that you pride yourself on. Certainly for me it’s one of my strengths. In previous walks of life you’d probably have a bigger eye on your average. Nowadays I’m all about sixes per game and probably one of my biggest things is limiting the number of dot balls in my first five balls.

‘Being able to hit boundaries from ball one is something that I’ve done really well in other franchise gigs around the world and hopefully it’s something that I can do really well for England.’

Indeed, while Livingstone has only got to 50 four times in 52 white-ball innings for his country, his strike rate of 147.79 is second amongst Englishmen behind Salt when it comes to T20 internationals.

England were able to get a win on the board in game three after edging the six count 18-16 in a series of aerial bombardment, having previously struggled in conditions in which they will defend their world title next June.

‘The best thing for us is it feels like from the start of the series to where we are now, we’ve been learning,’ Livingstone said.

‘I feel like we’ve taken a big step forward and ultimately that’s what we want to do. Obviously we want to win this series but there’s a World Cup coming up.

‘As holders of a World Cup, you always want to play your best cricket at that time. There’s a lot of focus on that and hopefully these next two games can give us a lot of confidence.’

It is expected to be confirmed this week that England will be based in Antigua and Barbados – islands that attracted in excess of 5,000 travelling supporters on this tour – when they return here in six months.

Probable teams:

England: Salt, Buttler (capt/wkt), Jacks, Livingstone, Brook, Moeen, Curran, Woakes, Ahmed, Rashid, Topley

West Indies: Mayers, King, Pooran (wkt), Hope, Powell (capt), Rutherford, Russell, Holder, Hosein, Joseph, Motie

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