It was a contest between two sides in contrasting form. While England, after the initial stutter against India, were on a rampage, winning five games in a row, West Indies struggled to find their feet right through the tournament.
In a dead rubber at the County Ground in Bristol, West Indies and England locked horns. Under overcast skies, the Caribbean skipper Stafanie Taylor won the toss and elected to field first.
The decision paid dividends as they were able to restrict England to 220/7. However, the target turned out to be a far cry as West Indies huffed and puffed to 128/9 in 50 overs and handed England a victory by 92 runs.
On that note, take a look at five talking points from the game.
#5 All-round bowling performance from England
Defending a modest target, the English bowlers were right on the money and hardly allowed the Caribbean batswomen to get on top of them. England used seven bowlers and everyone contributed in some way or the other.
The spinners put a lid on the scoring and got rid of three Caribbean batswomen in the process. Right-arm off-break bowler Laura Marsh and left-arm orthodox bowler Alex Hartley gave absolutely nothing away.
The fast bowlers were equally accurate and provided appropriate support to the spinners. Natalie Sciver was the pick of the pace bowlers with a spell of 4-1-3-3. Moreover, every English bowler delivered at least one maiden over, a rarity in a generation of slam-bang cricket.
#4 West Indies batswomen perish after getting their eye in
Chasing down a target of 221, West Indies required a couple of decent knocks to get them close to the finishing line. Three West Indies top-order batswomen in Hayley Matthews, Kycia Knight and Chedean Nation got into double figures, but none of them went on to score big.
Poor judgement of a run got rid of Knight as she was caught short of the crease at the keeper’s end. 19-year-old Matthews battled her way to 29 from 64 balls, but Hartley pinned her in front of the stumps to send her packing.
Throughout the tournament, Nation has thrown her wicket away after getting promising starts. Today was no different as she perished in the quest for quick runs after scoring 23 from 57 balls.
#3 Priceless contributions from Marsh and Gunn
For a chunk of the England innings, West Indies bowlers had the England batters in a hole. They hardly dished out loose deliveries, drying up the runs, and fetching wickets for their team at regular intervals.
After 43.3 overs, England found themselves in a precarious position with the score at 172/7. Laura Marsh joined Jenny Gunn at the crease and they strung together a quickfire stand of 48 runs in 39 balls for the eighth wicket that helped England post a competitive total.
Gunn was slow in the beginning, but her innings gathered momentum as the game wore on. Marsh showed her intent from the word go as she raced away to 31 runs in 19 balls that included four scorching boundaries.
#2 Afy Fletcher – West Indies’ stand-out bowler
In any format of cricket, wrist spinners are crucial components as they are wicket-takers. West Indies have one leg-spinner in Afy Fletcher, who ripped apart the English batting line-up by bowling immaculate line and length.
She also generated a fair amount of turn from the wicket as she was able to get the ball above the batswomen’s eye-line. She got her first wicket when Tammy Beaumont, the current highest run-scorer in the World Cup, attempted a sweep-shot off a full toss that was pouched by Merissa Aguilleira.
Natalie Sciver was her second victim as Fletcher castled the right-handed batswoman. The leg-spinner enticed her to play across the line and the ball beat the outside edge of the bat to cannon into the stumps. She followed it up with the wicket of Fran Wilson and ended with figures of 10-1-33-3.
#1 Skipper Heather Knight standing tall with the willow
With a partnership of 47 between Lauren Winfield and Tammy Beaumont, England got off a steady start. However, they lost Winfield in the 10th over resulting in a mini-collapse. In a space of 14 overs and 58 runs, England slumped from 47/0 to 105/5.
They lost Sarah Taylor for a golden duck after which wickets tumbled at regular intervals to give West Indies the upper hand in the game. Nevertheless, captain Heather Knight notched up 67 runs in 88 balls to guide England to a respectable total.
She blended caution with aggression and was able to counter the Caribbean bowlers without much fuss. She was lucky to survive an LBW shout off Afy Fletcher when Taylor and Co. opted not to review. Replays showed that the decision would have been reversed had the West Indies gone upstairs.
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