BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – SING-SONG chants of ‘London bridges falling down’ echoed throughout Warner Park yesterday afternoon (May 7) as host nation West Indies knocked reigning world champion England out of the ICC World Twenty20 women’s tournament with a two-run victory.
England chose to field first and did well to restrict West Indies to just 26 runs through the first six overs, but Juliana Nero held her ground under pressure at the top of the order and went on to add 32 from 38 balls. While West Indies held their early wickets, they faced challenges finding the boundary as Laura Marsh had a good day with the ball, picking up 3 for 17.
The momentum of the crowd then shifted dramatically in the favor of England when Anya Shrubsole dismissed Deandra Dottin on her first ball. Expectations had been high for Dottin to rally the side, having earlier in the week become the first woman in Twenty20 history to hit a century, and the loss of her wicket proved to be a significant blow as West Indies struggled to 122/8 from their 20 overs.
The match then seemed in the bag for the visitors as wicketkeeper Sarah Taylor and Captain Charlotte Edwards played confident strokes in the opening partnership to reach 65/0 through the first nine overs.
However, West Indies Captain Merissa Aguilleira then made the decision to change the approach and brought in right-arm offbreak bowler Anisa Mohammed to snap the rhythm of Taylor and Edwards. The change in attack paid off and Mohammed picked up both wickets in the first two balls of the tenth.
The remainder of England’s batting order with the exception of Lydia Greenway, who finished the day with an unbeaten 26 from 28 balls, lost their composure and the side collapsed to a tense losing total of 120/9 from their 20 overs.
Thunderous applause erupted from the largest crowd to date at the preliminary matches in St. Kitts when Juliana Nero ran out Katherine Brunt on the final ball and West Indies officially secured their place in the semi-finals along with Australia.
“It feels great to win Player of the Match as the team needed a victory to reach the semi-finals. The batters did their job by putting 122 runs on the board and the bowlers needed to come good today. It feels great to have gotten the breakthrough for us go onto win the match and make the semis,” Mohammed stated at the post match press conference.
Earlier in the day, Australia confidently defeated South Africa by 24 runs after they put up a winning total of 155/all out from 19.3 overs. The two undefeated teams will meet this Sunday (May 9) in the afternoon session for what many are pegging as the climax of the preliminary round before moving on to St. Lucia.
