Alongside the international fixtures, the ECB have announced the windows for the 2019 Women’s County Championship, County T20 Cup and Kia Super League.

The County Championship will run in a block from the Mayday Bank Holiday weekend (May 5th/ 6th), through the “other” May Bank Holiday (26th/ 27th) and finishing on June 2nd. This means that the England players should be available for most, if not all, of the County Champs, with the international window not beginning until June 6th.

The County T20 Cup will run through June – starting on the 9th and finishing on the 30th – i.e. during the international window, giving opportunities to the younger players coming through the county ranks.

(Full county fixtures are here – use Quick Search to select “2019 Season”!)

The international window finishes on July 31st, so the KSL will then run through August, with Finals Day at Hove on Sunday September 1st.

The ECB have confirmed fixtures against the West Indies and Australia for summer 2019, including the Women’s Ashes Test at Taunton.

The West Indies ODIs will count towards the ICC Championship, helping to determine qualification for the 2021 World Cup in New Zealand.

The last KSL Finals Day is also confirmed for Hove on September 1st.

WEST INDIES

Thursday June 6

• First ODI @ Leicester

Sunday June 9

• Second ODI @ Worcester

Thursday June 13

• Third ODI v @ Chelmsford

Tuesday June 18

• First IT20 @ Northampton

Friday June 21

• Second IT20 @ Northampton

Tuesday June 25

• Third IT20 @ Derby

WOMEN’S ASHES v AUSTRALIA

Tuesday July 2

• First ODI @ Leicester

Thursday July 4

• Second ODI @ Leicester

Sunday July 7

• Third ODI @ Canterbury

Thursday July 18 – Sunday July 21

• Test @ Taunton

Friday July 26

• First IT20 @ Chelmsford

Sunday July 28

• Second IT20 @ Hove

Wednesday July 31

• Third IT20 @ Bristol

KIA SUPER LEAGUE

Sunday September 1

• Finals Day @ Hove

In the end, it was all a bit like that scene in Indiana Jones – the West Indies sword had glistened in this tournament, as they spun it from hand to hand in a display of swaggering bravado… so Australia got out their gun and just shot them!

Make no mistake – the West Indies were up for this! On taking the early wicket of Beth Mooney, they were dancing just like they had in St Lucia as they bettered their key rivals in Group A – first South Africa and then England.

But Australia didn’t come to dance, they came to win!

It was quickly clear that the this was a pitch on which the big shots were going to play hard-to-get, so Healy and Lanning didn’t go for them – largely picking off the easier runs into the gaps and spaces to build the foundations of the innings.

When the time came to take some risks and accelerate, Healy selflessly took on a few more shots and payed the price, falling short of her 50, but Gardner and Haynes showed the value of having kept wickets in hand, pushing the rate on in the last few overs.

Was it a glamorous total? No!

Was it enough? Yes – obviously!

But it is also fair to say that it might not have been against a different team – a team that were prepared to play the same “percentage cricket” that the Aussies were.

But the Windies were not that team – go big or go home seems to be their motto; and the scorecard tells the story as the Aussies worked their way through the middle order – caught, caught, caught, caught, caught, caught.

Going big just wasn’t an option… so now they are going home.

The ECB have today confirmed the list of Academy players for 2018/19, as well as announcing another revamp of the pathway system, with the Junior and Senior Academy squads now once again merged into one.

The big news is that Lancashire Thunder wicketkeeper Ellie Threlkeld has been dropped from the squad, leaving England with no Academy keeper – Mark Robinson apparently confident that Sarah Taylor and Amy Jones will do the job for a number of years to come.

Several other players who were in the Academy last year have also been “promoted”, with Freya Davies, Alice Davidson-Richards and Linsey Smith all now on “Rookie” contracts.

A question mark remains over Bryony Smith, who is no longer in the Academy squad but who played for the full side earlier in the year in the India tri-series. We understand that she has been training with the full squad for several months, and the likelihood is that she is also now a contracted “Rookie”, though the ECB will not be announcing the full list of contracted players until after the World Twenty20.

An additional 13 players have also been named in a new “Winter Training Squad”, which looks like it will de facto replace the old Junior Academy, with the aim to offer support for players who are currently seen as having the potential to be part of the EWA in the future.

The full squads are below:

England Women’s Academy

• Lauren Bell (Berkshire)
• Hollie Armitage (Yorkshire)
• Georgia Boyce (Nottinghamshire)
• Emma Lamb (Lancashire)
• Charlie Dean (Hampshire)
• Sophia Dunkley (Middlesex)
• Danielle Gibson (Gloucestershire)
• Mady Villiers (Essex)
• Kirstie Gordon (Nottinghamshire)
• Ellie Mitchell (Cornwall)
• Amy Gordon (Surrey)
• Ella McCaughan (Sussex)

Training Squad

• Eva Gray (Surrey)
• Maia Bouchier (Middlesex)
• Bess Heath (Derbyshire)
• Sarah Glenn (Derbyshire)
• Rhianna Southby (Surrey)
• Issy Wong (Warwickshire)
• Nat Wraith (Gloucestershire)
• Leah Dobson (Yorkshire)
• Ria Fackrell (Warwickshire)
• Georgia Draper (Yorkshire)
• Lucia Kendall (Hampshire)
• Alice Capsey (Surrey)
• Helen Fenby (Durham)

This was the tournament thriller we’d all been waiting for – West Indies eventually winning with a mere 3 balls to spare. From England’s perspective, though, it should never have got that close.

Was this England’s worst batting performance of the Mark Robinson era? Of England’s top 6, only Tammy Beaumont made it into double figures, and it could have been even worse than that: Beaumont herself was dropped on 12, to a skier that the Windies keeper couldn’t quite cling onto.

At one stage it even looked like England could be dismissed for their record lowest score in T20Is – 87 v Australia at Hove in 2015 (a performance which this was reminiscent of at times).

Enter Sophia Dunkley for her first forage into international batting. She wouldn’t have been human if she hadn’t been nervous – and there were certainly some anxious swipes early on – but this is a player who, as I’ve written before, isn’t cowed easily. To finish as England’s top-scorer on debut, to stand firm as all around you lose their heads (Ed: do you mean wickets?), and to hit England’s first six of the tournament in the process – that takes a certain kind of temperament.

Captain Heather Knight summed it up afterwards:

“She has had to wait 3 games to get out there and get the bat in hand, and she has been itching at the bit to do that. The way she played, under that amount of pressure in front of 10,000 people – I’m really pleased for her.”

Dunkley was of course ably backed up by Anya Shrubsole, who after batting for 8 overs then came straight out to open the bowling. Her inswingers delivered two quick wickets in her first over, leaving West Indies 3-2 and England suddenly in with an unexpected shot at winning this match.

Had she taken a third, all might well have been different. Deandra Dottin could easily have been dismissed when still on 0* – Shrubsole inducing a miscue that fell only just safe of Sophie Ecclestone at mid-off. As it was, her 46 off 52 balls was crucial as West Indies wended their way towards the target.

“We held our nerve,” Dottin said afterwards, when asked about the difference between the two sides today. “We had a never die attitude.”

England, meanwhile, appeared to completely lose their heads in the field. It was as if, after Dottin began doing her thing, panic set in: there were all manner of fumbles, poor throws which could otherwise have been real run out opportunities, and just plain dropped catches. It was odd, too, that Knight chose to persist with Dani Hazell – who had gone at 9 an over in her first outing – when she could have turned to the leg-spin of Dunkley, or even bowled herself.

“It was very difficult conditions – the ball went very high, and fielding under the lights with the dark skies is something we haven’t done in this competition yet,” Knight said afterwards. “A little bit more skill and composure would have got us over the line.”

Skill and composure will be exactly what is required on Thursday, where they are now destined to meet India (not Australia as many expected) in their semi-final.

I’ll admit to experiencing a fair few nerves ahead of today’s match. As a must-win game for England, I was worried.

That seems a long time ago now.

England absolutely trampled all over South Africa with the ball. Linsey Smith carried on from where she left off the other day, introduced in only the third over of the powerplay and claiming the wicket of Laura Wolvaardt with her fourth delivery. England did get somewhat overexcited early on – chucking away their DRS review on an Anya Shrubsole ball that was missing Lizelle Lee’s leg stump by a fair old whack – but with Lee the big South Africa wicket, perhaps that was understandable.

“It ended up being a terrible review really,” Shrubsole told CRICKETher afterwards. “I thought it was bit closer than it was, and then you watch a replay. It was one of those things – DRS is new to everyone and we are getting used to it.”

By the halfway stage England had already broken the backbone of the South African innings, reducing them from 27-1 to 30-4. Kirstie Gordon again bowled well, but it was Nat Sciver – with remarkable figures of 4-1-4-3 – who starred.

While it seemed incongruous for Mark Robinson to stick with an unchanged side, not bringing in Tash Farrant on this seamer’s wicket, the performance of Sciver today showed that she is quite capable of stepping up in Katherine Brunt’s stead, Farrant or no. After her good showing with the ball in this season’s KSL – 10 wickets at 28 – Sciver can now, I think, be considered a frontline T20 bowler, rather than a batter-who-bowls. It’s hard to put your finger on exactly what has changed for her over the past few months, but something certainly has.

“She has worked really hard leading up to this – made a little bit of a technical change to her action, and the ball is coming out beautifully,” said Shrubsole of her new-ball partner. “We’ve always known that she is capable of this and she is a world class allrounder – she has shown it with the bat in the past, and she is showing it with the ball now in this tournament.”

Shrubsole then wrapped things up with a 20th over hat-trick. Easy pickings in one sense; but this was the clinical performance that we didn’t see against Bangladesh – England determined not to take their foot off the pedal until their opponents were ground into the dust.

By the time South Africa took the field, they were already thoroughly demoralised, as evidenced by some terrible pieces of fielding – new keeper Faye Tunnicliffe letting through 4 byes and Masabata Klaas failing to collect a straightforward pick-up at third man. It didn’t help that DRS was unavailable for much of the England innings due to a power outage. (Power cuts appear to be common here in St Lucia – we had one in our villa a few days back!)

Meanwhile the England openers, after such a disastrous start against Bangladesh on Monday, seem to have recovered their joie de vivre, presumably due to being able to train properly over the past 3 days thanks to some Caribbean sunshine. It was a shame they couldn’t finish the job, but to reach 55 without losing a wicket set the platform for the middle-order that was so non-existent on Monday.

So South Africa are out of it; while England are assured of a place in the semi-finals, after West Indies beat Sri Lanka.

From the South African perspective, after such a good showing in last year’s 50-over World Cup this tournament has been a huge disappointment. Their key problem is clearly their batting. Wednesday’s collapse against West Indies was pretty bad, but this was in some ways even worse: none of their top 4 could muster up a strike rate of more than 60. Their biggest asset with the bat, Lizelle Lee, seems to be stifling her natural game, holding back when she should be firing. While this might be assumed to be on the advice of her coaches, Hilton Moreeng categorically denied this in the post-match press conference.

England, meanwhile, face defending champions West Indies in their final group match on Sunday. Despite already being through to the next stage, England will want to win this to ensure they top the group and avoid a likely semi-final clash with Australia (dependent on the Aussies beating India tomorrow). It should be a cracker.

It’s a big day in Group A in St Lucia, as England face South Africa and West Indies play Sri Lanka, with Bangladesh having a rest. All 4 teams playing today could still qualify for the semi-finals in Antigua.

South Africa and Sri Lanka are both in the last chance saloon – they will be eliminated if they lose; but if they win, they could still go on to Antigua.

The West Indies will qualify if they beat Sri Lanka – joining India and Australia in the semis.

England will qualify if they beat South Africa and West Indies beat Sri Lanka.

England will not mathematically go out if they lose; but…

If England lose and West Indies win, then England are actually in a lot of trouble – they would then need Bangladesh to beat South Africa on Sunday, which given South Africa’s bowling and Bangladesh’s batting looks unlikely! So in fact, this is de-faco a must-win day for England too!

Linsey Smith has been awarded a “Rookie” contract to enable her to continue to train full-time over the winter with the England squad.

The left-arm spinner, who made her international debut on Monday against Bangladesh and who had previously worked as a coach for Leicestershire, said that the decision had come as a relief.

“I came out of the KSL this year thinking, ‘right, I need to find a job away from cricket,’” she told ESPN Cricinfo in an interview published today. “For them to say, ‘you can focus on what you want to do, focus on being a cricketer for England’, it’s such a relief. I feel very lucky and privileged.”

Smith joins other “Rookies” Freya Davies, Alice Davidson-Richards and Katie George, with the 4 of them training alongside the 19 players with full contracts.

The ICC are rumoured to be considering the drastic step of moving England’s Women’s World T20 group to a different country, after the world champions’ opening match in St Lucia was washed out by heavy rain yesterday.

66% of the average rainfall for the month of November fell in 24 hours yesterday, turning the outfield at the Darren Sammy Ground into a soggy marsh, with the plastic sheeting used to cover the square and bowlers’ run-ups proving little defence against the deluge.

With further heavy rain forecast through the rest of the week and beyond, the tournament organisers were beginning to contemplate moving all of England’s Group A to Antigua, where the semi-finals and final are due to be staged later in the month.

Antigua obviously has the infrastructure to host the matches themselves, but moving 75 players plus officials and support staff alone would be a huge undertaking, not to mention the media and television crews. St Lucia has just one scheduled flight per day to Antigua, so moving the group would mean chartering planes for a military-style airlift, which may be beyond the resources of even the cash-rich ICC.

It would also prove bitterly disappointing for the spectators who have spent thousands of pounds to travel to St Lucia to follow England’s progress.

The good news, such as it is for England, is that if the entire remainder of the group were to be washed out, they would actually qualify for the semi-finals. The West Indies, whose opening game win against Bangladesh was played in Providence Guyana – the only Group A match scheduled to be played outside St Lucia – would top the group; with Bangladesh bottom and everyone else joint-second.

With two teams qualifying, the table would then fall back to seedings, which would see England qualify for a possible semi-final date with Australia.

England captain Heather Knight is hoping that England’s tough warm-up schedule, which included defeats to the West Indies and India, will help them overcome their opening-game “hoodoo” which saw them lose their first match at both the last 50-over World Cups.

“In the ideal world we’d want to be winning those [warm-up] games,” Knight told CRICKETher on the eve of England’s WT20 opener against Sri Lanka. “But it is better for our preparation actually – not playing easy games that we win without being challenged or being tested.”

“The last 50 over World Cup we had really easy warm-up games – we breezed them and then and then we came under a little bit of pressure in the first game and weren’t quite ready for it, so I think we fact that we’ve been tested means we’ve had a taste of the conditions – we know exactly how we need to sharpen up and what areas we need to be better in.”

With Katherine Brunt out of the tournament, which Knight described as a “big loss”, she pretty much confirmed that Linsey Smith will open the bowling for England.

“The role she [Smith] played in the warm-ups and the KSL is why we picked her – bowling those difficult of overs at the top of the powerplay and towards the back end – something she has done very well in the warm-up games and in the KSL.”