Shimron Hetmyer is the all-round package West Indies have been desperately hoping for. © AFP

When Shimron Hetmyer bats in a floppy sunhat, cricket lovers swoon. There is something so classical, something so exotic about that look. It brings back memories of times gone by, simpler times, when the likes of Richie Richardson and Carl Hooper would make batting look so easy and so stylish. It wasn't just the sunhat of course but the all-round package. And Shimron Hetmyer is the all-round package West Indies have been desperately hoping for.

His unbeaten hundred in the second ODI at Kensington Oval was a swaggering, scintillating confirmation of his talent. There were glimpses during the Test series. There have been glimpses in his three ODI hundreds before this one. But in Barbados on Friday, the 22 year-old confirmed what observers such as former England captain Mike Atherton have been saying for some time. Hetmyer has the temperament and the talent to become the next great West Indian batsman.

His hundred, achieved off the penultimate ball of West Indies' innings, hauled his team up to a competitive total on a surface which wasn't quite as good for batting as many expected. Coming in at 121 for 3, Hetmyer had a decent platform with which to work but with only five specialist batsmen named in the team, it was down to him to shepherd the lower middle order. For someone playing just his 22nd ODI, it was quite a task.

But he did it expertly, hitting seven boundaries and four sixes in his 83-ball knock, accelerating sharply at the end of West Indies' innings. Of all the batsmen on either side, he was the only one who looked properly fluent. It is little wonder. According to CricViz, since Hetmyer made his debut against New Zealand a little over a year ago, only Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have made more centuries than him and the West Indian has scored faster than both of them.

He's done it all with a smile on his face and his exuberant celebration on reaching three figures was yet more evidence of his zest for the game. "I wanted to get a hundred here in the Test series, in front the wonderful Barbadian crowd, but I got it today in front of the crowd and in front of my girlfriend. It's a special feeling," he said after play. "My celebration was for my girlfriend - I try to do good things whenever she is around. The guys will be hoping she's always around!"

Hetmyer deservedly picked up the man of the match award but Sheldon Cottrell, the left-arm seamer, did just as much to seal West Indies' victory with a five-wicket haul. Having not been selected for the first match, Cottrell proved the folly of that decision immediately by dismissing Jonny Bairstow LBW with just his second delivery and then Jason Roy, bowled, in his second over to ruin any hope England had of a fast start. The wickets of Eoin Morgan, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid followed later on.

After each wicket, Cottrell, who finished with 5 for 46, stood mid-pitch and saluted. "My celebration is a military-style salute," he said after the match. "I'm a soldier back in Jamaica by profession, 11 years strong. Me saluting is just to show my respect to the Jamaica Defence Force. I'll do it every time I get a wicket. I just enjoy the saluting, enjoy playing cricket. I practised the celebration for six months when I was training in the army. It was a full team effort today. We really enjoyed ourselves."

In pursuit of 290, England were cruising when Morgan and Ben Stokes combined for a 99 run stand and then when Stokes and Jos Buttler put on 69, but Stokes' dismissal began a collapse of six wickets for 35 runs which cost the tourists the game. "We felt that 290 was well within our capabilities," Morgan said. "The guys who did get themselves in, including myself, did not do that for long enough. We made mistakes, it hurt us and the West Indies deserved to win.

"We were probably in a better position than we were in the first game. But a game is never won right until the end. We just left a little bit too much to do. It's international cricket, you've got to hurt sides when you get on top. We didn't and they came back and took wickets consistently. We turn up trying our hardest to win every game it doesn't happen every time."