After a summer that threatened to feature no women’s cricket, it turned into a pretty successful one for England who on Wednesday completed a dominant 5-0 series win over West Indies.
Heather Knight’s side put in a series of ruthless performances in Derby, with one eye on the massive challenge of 2022.
In two years’ time, England will play in the 50-over World Cup, Commonwealth Games, T20 World Cup and travel to Australia for the Women’s Ashes.
So what have we learnt from this truncated summer?
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Each match has seen a different batter step up to the mark and wickets have been shared around by a largely settled bowling line-up.
“Amy Jones has really come alive in this series,” said World Cup winner Alex Hartley. “She was opening the batting in the World Cup but she’s been moved down the order and it’s allowed her to help England consolidate when the middle order has lost quick wickets.”
Four different batters have top-scored in each game and no one bowler has taken more than three wickets in a match.
The worry with England has always been an over-reliance on Nat Sciver and Knight to score the runs. This series has shown the depth the batting line-up has to offer, with Jones and Tammy Beaumont making half-centuries and Sarah Glenn providing some aggressive hitting in the latter stages.
“England have recovered from not always ideal positions,” said Test Match Special commentator Isabelle Westbury.
“They started the fourth match with their lowest powerplay score and went on to make their highest total of the series. That’s pretty impressive.”
How will England stack up against the big guns?
Despite such a dominant series performance, there have been times when England have been on the ropes – and better teams will be able to take advantage of that.
Opener Danni Wyatt has not passed 20 in her last 12 T20 innings and England have only got through the opening powerplay once without losing a wicket.
This series has seen them slip to scores of 96-6 and 83-4, but West Indies have allowed England back into the game, either through poor fielding or not attacking with their bowling options.
“It’s difficult to judge where England think they are because they would expect themselves, at this stage, to be comprehensively beating West Indies,” Westbury said.
“There will be a sense of foreboding as they go towards the series against New Zealand early in 2021, and possibly Australia, knowing they have to play against the best teams in the world.”
Their fielding under the lights has also been lacking – wicketkeeper Jones dropped three skied chances in the final two games – and it is those errors that will cost them in tight T20 games.
West Indies deserve more help
Prior to the series, the England players were able to compete in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy – the domestic 50-over competition – and spent two weeks at Loughborough playing inter-squad games.
This amount of time together should not be underestimated. It allowed captain and coach to see all of their possible players, work out what they want their T20 team to look like, and be able to speak to their players face to face.
West Indies had none of this. There has been no regional domestic cricket since early 2019. The first time the players would have seen one another, post lockdown, would have been on the flight to England.
West Indies have world-class players; Deandra Dottin’s return to form, with 185 runs in five innings, and the emergence of seam bowler Aaliyah Alleyne, bode well.
However, their funding is limited, the chances to tour and play the the big three (England, Australia and India) in different conditions are limited, and there is a risk the gulf will widen.
This is a team that agreed, at short notice, to come over and tour a country that is still in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic. Their willingness deserves more than just words of praise – these players deserve the same opportunities as the other, better funded teams.
“Cricket in countries that may not financially be in the same position as England and Australia is probably the biggest concern,” England coach Lisa Keightley said.
“All teams are really improving and on the way up. You don’t want teams to be going without cricket for long periods of time.
“Hopefully we can move forward and look forward to playing some cricket soon.”
2022 will be a belter
While plenty could still change, 2022 is shaping up to be a huge year for the women’s game, and the signs from this series are positive.
England are putting together their most well-balanced T20 team to date, and one that will only grow more over the next 12 months.
This series also saw the first live women’s game on BBC Sport since 1993, simulcast live on Sky, which saw a peak audience of 1m and a total reach of 2m across both networks.
Women’s sport has been hit hard by coronavirus, but the visibility of this series will go some way to redressing that balance.
In March, 86,000 people arrived at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch the women’s T20 World Cup final. That growth and level of visibility has to be built on and not forgotten about in these difficult times.
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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