The Southampton result wasn't part of the script, was it? Especially with 'Sir' Ben Stokes as the helm. For over the last 12 months, whenever Stokes took over the responsibility in the deciding moments of the game, England have always emerged victorious, the Headingley win last Ashes being the epitome.

After exhausting his England's pace-bowling pair, it was Stokes who took over the responsibility of dismembering the final four batsmen of the Windies lineup. He has been impressive as fourth-innings bowler, averaging the least out oBut on Sunday, it just wasn't meant to be. West Indies defeated England by four wickets in the opener of the three-game series, hence putting a forgettable end to Stokes's captaincy debut. And fans will only be looking back at this game, blaming Stokes for his decision to bat first after winning the toss, and leaving out Stuart Broad from the lineup. It's only natural, but there was more to his captaincy than those two calls.

Stokes was the leading scorer for the team in the first innings when all the England batters struggled against the pair of Shannon Gabriel and Jason Holder. With the pace-bowling pair pitch it around length to extract movement that trouble the top-order lineup, Stokes showed the way to negate the lateral movement by stepping out of the crease and driving the ball through covers and mid-on. There was a statement of intent in his 97-ball 43 which was laced with seven boundaries and the scoring method was picked up even by his on-field partner Jos Buttler as the pair added 67 runs. Such was his impact that Holder was urged to remove Gabriel from the attack as he stepped up for the crucial role.

Even with the ball, Stokes was the leading wicket-taker for England in the match where picked up key wickets - Kraigg Brathwaite (65), Shane Dowrich (61) and Holder (5) in the first innings, and Jermaine Blackwood (95) and Dowrich (20) again, in the second innings.

Even with his on-field decisions, Stokes nicely rotated the bowlers in the first innings, at least for the first two and a half session. But when the Archer-Wood pair failed to make any penetration, he fell back to James Anderson for some lateral movement while he too joined in the attack.