West Indies end year on a low, England win fifth T20
Kaieteur News – The year ended badly for West Indies Women as they slipped to a huge defeat at the hands of England Women again on Thursday night. Batting first after being sent in, West Indies failed to make use of a good surface on a cool evening at the historic venue.They were bowled out for a mere 43 runs off 16.2 overs. Teenager Djenba Joseph was the only batter to reach double-figures. She made 11 off 22 balls; batted for 45 minutes and held firm as wickets fell all around her. She eventually lost patience and skied an attempted lofted drive to give Nat Sciver her third catch. It was the first of three wickets for Alice Davidson-Richards, who returned impressive figures of 2-0-5-3.
At the top of the innings, seamer Freya Davies was also lethal and as she captured the key wickets of skipper Hayley Matthews (8) and Rashada Williams without scoring. Davies returned to get her third wicket at the end of the innings to return figures of 2.2-1-2-3.
England them motored to the target reaching 44-2 off 5.3 overs to register another emphatic win. Nat Sciver made 20 not out off 12 balls, which included two authoritative boundaries through midwicket.
It was England’s fifth win of the series and confirmed their dominance over the home side. Earlier on the tour they had a 3-0 victory in the One-Day International Series at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.
Captain Hayley Matthews said, “I think we need to look at the positives from the series. It’s really good to have the youngsters joining the squad and it’s going to be a big improvement in bolstering our squad and getting the experience. Yes the series didn’t go our way but I believe this is the start of something good.”
Having failed to secure a victory, West Indies will need to show some improvement when they head off to South Africa for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in six weeks and West Indies will again face England in the preliminary round.
The eighth edition of the marquee event will begin on 10 February with hosts South Africa taking on Sri Lanka. Cape Town, Paarl and Gqeberha will host the matches in the tournament with the knockout matches set to be played in Cape Town. The final will be held on 26 February.
The 10 teams will be drawn in two groups as follows, Group 1: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh; with Group 2: England, India, West Indies, Pakistan and Ireland.
