England’s Bowling
- Although Beth Langston was apparently fit and available, England chose not to change a winning team, meaning they went in with only one “strike” bowler, and Nat Sciver again opening the bowling. Although Sciver did get the early wicket of Hayley Matthews – a fantastic catch by Lauren Winfield – England just didn’t have any penetration, and it wasn’t until the 24th over that the next wicket fell, as Shaquana Quintyne went to an even better catch by Danni Wyatt.
- It has to be said that England didn’t let the West Indies “get away” either – they kept them pegged-back to around 4/ over, and at the 40-over mark it could have gone either way for the hosts from 162-4; but in the end with wickets in hand, they knew they could start to push, and push they did – scoring at over 6/ over in the last 10, to finish on 223, leaving England facing the highest run-chase ever for victory in a women’s ODI in the Caribbean*.
* Thanks to @_hypocaust on Twitter for the tip!
England’s Batting
- England’s reply began in fantastic fashion – this was arguably Tammy Beaumont’s best innings in an England shirt – 57 runs in a pressure-cooker situation (both literally and metaphorically) away from home, against a top, top team – she played positively, striking the ball with power and timing, and together with Lauren Winfield (51) drove England into a match-winning position.
- At 90-odd for no wicket, we were waiting for the West Indies to mentally disintegrate, as they had in the 3rd ODI last week – Deandra Dottin bowled a ridiculous wide bouncer – a sure sign of frustration about to boil-over…
- But… but…
- West Indies are a “confidence” team – when they are down, they are very, very down; but when they are up, they can be very, very up, very, very quickly, and that is just what started to happen. England mentally disintegrated and the West Indies ran them through with a broadsword – Sciver 3; Wyatt 0; Elwiss 9; Jones 0; Brunt 1; Gunn 0; and Alex Hartley 0 Not Out at the end – only Heather Knight (36) and Laura Marsh (13) made it into double-figures after the openers.
Overall, this certainly feels like the worst performance of the Robinson era – worse than the loss to South Africa, where the Proteas chased down 262; worse than the World T20 semi-final defeat, where they collapsed, but not quite like this.
On the other hand, the West Indies are a smashing team on their day – Stafanie Taylor is a “Big Game” player, as anyone who saw her in the Super League will testify, and she was fantastic today – top-scoring with 85 and taking a brilliant caught & bowled to dismiss Knight… all despite clearly playing through an injury.
England can still go on to win this series on Wednesday – it is a new day and a new game of cricket – and one thing is for sure – Mark Robinson will have them up for it!
CRICKETher 
Thanks for the mention. Should note though it was the 8th highest ODI victory target in the WI. An ENG win would have been highest successful chase.
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These maybe the best players we’ve got and the nature of cricket and limited number of games and some indifferent wickets, makes consistency a difficult thing to achieve.
But in the England ranks there are still some players who are scarred from past experiences and when they come under pressure these traits resurface in the form of poor decision making.
The men have shown that playing without fear can be achieved can this squad do it and break the cycle in the Word Cup? I still think they need some new players, to push those in situ and a reinvigorated Sarah Taylor.
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It is probably the worst overall performance under Robinson. When we lost the SA ODI, at least we batted well. I’m starting to think that when chasing, Lauren and Tammy need to take us within about 75 runs of any target in order for the team to eventually get there. As it turned out though, we gave them too many runs with a so-so performance in the field and it was always going to be unlikely to make that target.
Hartley and Jones had bad days at the office. Not much point blaming Sciver with the ball, she only bowled 4 overs. It was mainly the spinners, Hartley, Knight and Marsh that conceded too many runs, all bowling too legside today. West Indies didn’t have much penetration either, until they put pressure on in the middle of the innings and England self-destructed.
Batting-wise, the run-outs were the main concern for me. I can only imagine you didn’t mention them Syd because it brings back horrific flashbacks or something. Totally needless and ultimately suicidal running. Can Knight avoid all criticism for these, as she was present for so many of them? We know she has a bit of a history with run-outs.
It makes more sense to me for Elwiss to bat at 6 like she did here. England need some middle order stability and Elwiss looked good until her run-out. Better still would have been Fran Wilson in there, and of course SJT back in England colours. You could be forgiven for thinking Windies appear to be a one-woman show, with Taylor getting most of the runs and involved in most of the dismissals. Do any other team have a player that dominant?
Despite all the disappointment, the minimum requirement for Championship points was already picked up on Friday, and it has been a pretty close series overall, so I’m not too down-heartened. England go again for one last try, and I hope will see out 50 overs with the bat next time! It’s something they need practice doing.
Maybe the best approach chasing would be to try and forget the target and just bat as if you’re batting first. That’s what the openers appeared to do. Difficult to continue, though as the innings goes on.
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Very disappointing. Five run outs and a number of dropped catches means you are never going to win a game.
The most disappointing thing is they had worked so hard to be favourites with around 20 overs to go. I suppose we have to remember how hard it is to chase on these wickets. Both the games England have lost have been chasing on wickets that have already had a game on them so it’s always going to difficult.
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It must be remembered we are not playing Pakistan at home this is the West Indies in their backyard. The disappointing issue to me is the poor decision making when knowing to push for a run, not the actual batting. It’s really about mental toughness and believing in your own ability. At present this is only evident in a small majority, and yes it’s a fear factor. Need players to stand up and say I’m in control this is my opportunity I will get us home….just saying.
They will learn especially playing against the better teams. Too much soft cricket in the past I’m afraid.
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Not so sure about this…Everyone keeps saying the Pakistan series meant nothing, but who are the players looking most confident for England right now? Winfield, Sciver and Beaumont, the same ones so dominant against Pakistan. Sorry, it helped them, whatever you say. I’d wager if you ask the England players what was more challenging, playing in that Pakistan series or county cricket, many would go for the former. It’s just a case of who was given the opportunity to profit. That’s why the best way to overcome the situation is to have more International series played (really England had enough time this summer to play another ODI or 3 against better opposition, too) and a stronger top-level domestic game.
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West Indies’ stream ran faultlessly throughout the England innings so no excuse not to watch it. Oh dear.
Thankfully England didn’t match their record for number of run outs in an ODI innings. They have managed a whopping 6 run outs against Australia in 19th July 1998.
Knight has become the 1st England batsmen to be ‘involved’ in the Run Outs of 4 partners in a single ODI innings. The previous record holder was Jane Smit who was involved in 3 in the Australia match above. Scorecards, of course, do not attribute blame !
Up to the start of this tour, Knight had been relatively inactive in being ‘involved’ in her partner’s run outs having only been involved in 5 from 54 innings. Beaumont’s 4 from 19 innings is the worst strike rate amongst current batsmen (and even keeps this ‘title’ despite Knight’s ‘effort’ in the 4th ODI).
Taylor’s all round performance (85, 22-3 and a Run Out) was right up there with the very best. The nearest England have suffered before has been Rolton (61, 14-3), Bates twice (82, 20-3, 2 catches : 75, 27-3), Mason (67, 42-3) and Satterthwaite (76, 37-3). What a player.
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The dropped catches and missed stumping was just as crucial as the run outs. Although Hartley never even got a hand on hers.
I agree with both Fred and James. They definitely need to play more tough cricket and get used to fighting through tight situations. We also can’t disregard what the Pakistani series did for the likes of Beaumont etc. These players were no where at the start of the summer but have gained huge conference from their performances.
Don’t forget England are missing their best batter in Taylor and their 2nd best bowler in Shrubsole plus Fran Wilson. I’m not sure how well New Zealand would do without Bates or Australia without Lanning against the WI in their own backyard and on the back of them winning the T20 World Cup !
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