England’s 17-run win at Chelmsford on Monday wrapped up a T20 series clean sweep against West Indies. While that is a welcome result after a 16-0 Ashes drubbing, it would be premature to read too much into three one-sided matches against a team who in April failed to qualify for this year’s 50-over World Cup.
If England’s real problem under Jon Lewis was their failure to perform in pressure situations, this series offered little opportunity to show that they will fare better with their new head coach, Charlotte Edwards, at the helm. West Indies appear to be a one-woman team at the moment – the player of the series, Hayley Matthews, scored 177 runs, more than all her teammates put together – and the tourists slumped to eight- and nine-wicket losses against England in the first two T20 internationals.
West Indies finally brought some fight to the third match of the series, led by Matthews, their captain, who took three wickets and scored 71 in a frantic, rain affected run-chase which once again put the England fielding under the microscope. What happened when the pressure was on? England put down three consecutive catches off Realeanna Grimmond, sparking unwelcome memories of their horror exit from the World Cup at the hands of West Indies last October. The relief when Danni Wyatt-Hodge ran in from deep midwicket and held on to the fourth attempt was palpable.
“It’s hard to keep standards high but that’s what we’re pushing for, that’s what we’re driving for,” England’s new captain, Nat Sciver-Brunt, said. “We wanted to be tested, to be put under pressure.” No doubt she will relish the chance to lead her side against India later in the summer, in a truer test of the Edwards regime.
Reflecting on her own first series as leader, Sciver-Brunt said she had felt “clear and calm” throughout. For the moment, she appears to be living up to her own assessment as a captain who wants to empower others, rather than dictating matters from the centre. The 27-year-old fast bowler Emily Arlott, who took six wickets in her debut international series, was praised by her captain for being “very decisive and clear” in setting a field.
Sciver-Brunt added that the new leadership group – currently a three-woman band of herself, Sophia Dunkley and Charlie Dean – had worked well together throughout. Edwards, though, intends to revolve this group between series, which will provide a fascinating dynamic as different players get their chance to become part of the official brains trust.
Meanwhile, Sciver-Brunt’s predecessor, Heather Knight, seems content to take a back seat and focus on winning games of cricket with the bat, free from the burdens of captaincy: at Chelmsford, she scored her first ever T20 international fifty on home soil. It was a deft and innovative knock, interspersed with reverse ramps and scoops, and made all the more impressive by the fact that she spent the last four overs of the England innings hobbling due to a hamstring problem, and was unable to take to the field when West Indies batted.
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Knight’s injury will be assessed over the coming days, with a decision yet to be taken about her availability for the ODI series against West Indies which begins at Derby on Friday. In fact, the message regarding Knight’s hamstring and the Edwards-Sciver-Brunt era is much the same: we will just have to wait and see.
