Good afternoon fellow travellers, No doubt, just like me you’re aching emotionally from England’s shock defeat Tuesday afternoon at the hands of West Indies, but as we say T.I.E (This is England)
As we discussed in the last blog despite England having won their first 3 games the Net Run Rate situation meant the England Women still had to win their final group game. England had beaten West Indies the last 12 times the 2 teams have met and England are well above Windies in the world rankings but, as I always say, anything can happen in tournament cricket and no one told West Indies they were meant to lose.
England were under the pump from the off, losing the toss and being put in to bat. Nether the less England with their world class batting line up were expected to post a defendable score.
Danni Wyatt-Hodge was first to fall for 16. Englands other opener Maia Bouchier was caught out for 14 but not before running Alice Capsey out for 1. The world’s leading allrounder Nat Sciver-Brunt and England Skipper Heather Knight steadied the ship and put on a 78 run partnership before disaster struck and Knight was forced to retire hurt. Sciver-Brunt continued to an unbeaten 57 while the bowlers ground out single figure scores. England, thanks predominantly to Nat Sciver-Brunt set Windies 142 to win.
In this tournament 142 has proven to be a very defendable target. England has the world’s best bowler in Sophie Ecclestone and you should be able to back England to be better in the field. This match wasn’t over yet.
Hayley Matthews [c] and Qiana Joseph opened the batting for Windies, stepping into the middle in the famous claret and gold and then the madness began!
Matthews and Joseph went calypso on England and started smashing sixes and fours all over the park from the very first over. Windies were scoring at double the required run rate in the power play and the English bowlers had no answers for the first 6 overs.
To make matters worse, it looked as if someone had dipped the ball in lard, watching catch after catch go down for England. By the end of the game England had dropped no less than 5 catches and that simply isn’t good enough.
Matthews and Joseph were eventually out for 50 and 52 but the damage was done. Deandra Dottin mopped up the final runs needed and West Indies beat England in 18 overs and kicked them out of the tournament in the process.
I’m going to do a tournament round up after the final so we can think more about where England went wrong then but for now, we have our Semifinalists.
This afternoon at 3pm Australia will take on South Africa in a replay of the 2022 World Cup final, which of course, Australia won.
Australia are the favourite for this game but then Australia are the favourite for every game. South Africa have looked strong in this competition though and anyone can beat anyone on their day. I could see a possible upset here……….or maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part.
On Friday at 3 West Indies will try and make the final against New Zealand but we can talk about that one a bit more tomorrow.
In other cricketing news England and Pakistan men are playing a tense Test match in Multan. England have 2 days to score 267 runs to win with 8 wickets left. Pakistan have 2 days to bowl England out on a very tricky wicket………it could go either way!
Out in India, New Zealand are touring and in the first test, bowled India out for 46 runs in their first innings. That includes 5 ducks and after India decided to bat first, unbelievable scenes! New Zealand in reply are 180 for 3. It’s early days but this could be a famous Kiwi victory!
That’s it for now, all being well I’ll be back tomorrow.
Until then, come on South Africa!
All the best,
Nick
All The Cricket 
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