And then there were two! And perhaps not surprisingly it is the two with the most professional set-ups, who have made it through to the final - Australia and England.
Last night at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium Australia trounced the Windies, with Alyssa Healy recovering from her concussion to win her fourth Player of the Match award for her 46 at the top of the Aussie innings. It set up a score of 142/5, which looked a decent score on a slow outfield, but not insurmountable. But the Windies lost Hayley Matthews and Deandra Dottin with their score on 15, and from there they never looked like getting into the game. Players came and went at regular intervals and the Windies were soon all out for just 71.
It was a disappointing end to what had been a good tournament for the team. They had beaten England in their group game in St Lucia and topped Group A, but in front of 10,000 passionate Antiguans they couldn't deliver when it mattered against a team that could.
So it also proved with England against India. On a wicket that was getting slower and more difficult to score on as the evening went on, India had themselves well placed at 88/2 with Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur at the wicket. They had just taken 10 off the 13th over from Nat Sciver and had then launched Kirstie Gordon for a 4 and a 6 in the 14th over, before Rodrigues was needlessly run out going for a second run. In Gordon's next over Kaur then tried to go big again, but only succeeded in lobbing up a catch to Sciver at cover point. It was the beginning of the end of the Indian innings. From 88/2 they slumped to 112 all out in the last over of their 20.
But still this game was far from dead. India had gone into the game with six spinners and, in turn, they were each thrown the ball, but every one of them bowled too short, and with no-one in close on the leg-side after the initial powerplay, Amy Jones and Nat Sciver simply milked the ball to the legside for 1s, 2s and the occasional 4. 62 of the 82 runs off the bat after the powerplay came on the legside.
Skipper Kaur never looked to change the tactic and England just continued to make steady progress, after losing Tammy Beaumont and Danni Wyatt early, both to the slog sweep. The game was won by a 4 from Jones in the 18th over, which took her to 53* - her maiden T20I 50, including her first 6. Sciver finished 51*.
So Friday is a day off. Some of the middle order batsmen will probably go for a bit of a hit, just in case they are needed in the final, which will be at the same ground on Saturday at 8pm local time. We can only hope for a better, quicker wicket, but this ground at Antigua rarely, if ever, produces one. Let's also hope that the locals turn up again, even though their beloved Windies girls will not be in the final. It is likely to be a good match, but Australia will start as firm favourites. The carrot for England is that they have the chance of being double World Champions - both 50 over and 20 over.
Interestingly only five of the England players that will take the field tomorrow (we'd expect an unchanged team) played in that tense 50 over World Cup final against India. For the other six, including non-contracted Academy players Kirstie Gordon and Sophia Dunkley, it will be an almost dream-like scenario.
The team that wins will be the team that handles that pressure the best.
Martin Davies
23/XI/18
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When India were 88/2 I was pretty worried they might get 140+. But England came back brilliantly thanks to a combination of good bowling, great fielding and a rather inept last 5 or 6 overs from India. Kirstie Gordon has been superb all tournament, a massive find by Robinson, but here Knight and the other spinners - Ecclestone and Hazell did well too. Knight must surely give herself at least one over in the final if only to have a chance at the hat-trick!
ReplyDeleteStill, they had 112 runs on the board, and on that slow, dry, bouncy and spinning pitch it seemed like anything over 100 could have been potentially troublesome. England would need to bat well to make it over the line.
After a nervous start, Jones and Sciver came in, and from the word go got their approach absolutely spot-on. It was a perfectly paced chase, comfortably risk-free and full of urgency, good running and well-placed shots. A tremendous partnership, and the best one I've seen from England women since Beaumont and Wyatt helped them get to 250 in the Tri-series. But that was at home and on a much better pitch. This was in tougher conditions and under such pressure that it was in fact even more impressive to me.
Gone were the ill-judged dances down the wicket and premature swipes down the ground, which had got India nowhere, replaced by beautiful example of how to play on that pitch - staying back as much as possible, playing the ball late and pulling and cutting it as much as they could. India's spinners obligingly bowled wide of the stumps, and short. Whilst that might work at times, it's not generally good bowling.
Both Amy and Nat are good back-foot players and it really showed as they dominated through the leg-side, while a stubborn India attack persisted with a strategy that was no longer working for them. Seemingly devoid of a plan B or any new ideas, Kaur's side didn't really try anything new. A midwicket might have helped at times, or changes of angle or trying the seamer, but all these options were ignored. It was as if they thought they were defending 150, where allowing the singles might have been useful to stop boundaries.
In the end though, such was England's composure that they coasted home. After India's innings, Nasser Hussain said on Sky commentary that this wasn't the pitch where England could win with 3 wickets down and 3 overs left. That they managed to exceed that, shows what a great England chase this was. To me it's important to recognise that, because some observers love to criticise the team a lot when they don't chase well, which is bound to happen sometimes.