ICC Women's World Cup

ICC Women's World Cup (35)

Nat Sciver's unbeaten century went in vain as Australia managed to defend a total of 311 against arch-rivals England in their opening match at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022.

After a thriller in the opening day of the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup, fans were treated to yet another close encounter. Defending 311, Australia managed to hold their nerve with England needing 16 off the last over. Jess Jonassen gave away just three runs as the Aussies put their first points on board in the World Cup standings.

While several Aussie bowlers chipped in with wickets, it was Alana King who turned the game in the middle overs with three wickets, including the important scalp of Tammy Beaumont.            LoadureFullscreen

Chasing a daunting target of 311, Australia, through Megan Schutt, dented England early in the innings with the wicket of Lauren Winfield-Hill for a duck. Annabel Sutherland took a brilliant diving catch, plucking the ball inches off the ground to give the Aussies the early breakthrough.

England captain Heather Knight and Tammy Beaumont took a couple of overs to get their eye in but made up for it in the Powerplay, finishing on 53/1 at the end of 10 overs.

Beaumont raced to a fifty off 54 deliveries but Knight fell 10 runs short of the milestone – Tahlia McGrath forced a soft dismissal as the skipper was caught at covers, thus ending a brilliant 92-run partnership between the pair.

Nat Sciver and Beaumont had to rebuild the innings again after the dismissal, but the wicket of the England opener pegged them back. With a brilliant leg break that would have made the late Shane Warne proud, Alana King beat Beaumont in the air and off the surface and Alyssa Healy did the rest behind the stumps.

One brought two for King as Amy Jones departed soon without troubling the scorers much. At the other end, Sciver brought up her half-century but kept losing partners, Danni Wyatt this time departing for 7.

Sciver and Sophia Dunkley led England's recovery with a 55-run stand for the sixth wicket. It looked like the partnership could take England home but King once again broke through, bowling Dunkley around the legs.

With Katherine Brunt keeping her company, Sciver put the foot on the accelerator as the required rate climbed to almost 10 and brought up her 100.

With the equation down to 26 off the last two, McGrath and Jess Jonassen held their nerve. The former gave away just 10 from the penultimate over and Jonassen picked two wickets in the final over, including a stunning return grab to dismiss Brunt, as England fell 12 runs short.

Earlier in the day, a 196-run stand for the second wicket between Rachael Haynes and Meg Lanning formed the crux of the innings. Haynes went on to make a brilliant 130 – her second ODI century – while Lanning was dismissed for 86 by Katherine Brunt.

 

West Indies Women all-rounder Hayley Matthews is hopeful that a stunning upset of New Zealand to bowl off the ICC Women’s World Cup will give the team plenty of momentum moving forward.

In a magnificent player-of-the-match performance, Matthews put together a shot-filled 119 from 128 and claimed bowling figures of 2 for 41 to anchor the West Indies in a nail-biting 3-run win over the hosts.

Prior to the win, the team had not defeated New Zealand in the format since 2014 and it was only their second win in 7 meetings between the teams at the tournament.  The innings, her third ODI century and first at the World Cup, also represented a career run high for Matthews and was the team’s fourth-highest total at the World Cup.

For a team that few would have listed among the favourites, it was a solid start to the tournament.  

“It’s exactly what we were looking to come out here and do, get off to a really good start and hopefully we can carry this momentum into the rest of the tournament,” Matthews said, following the match.

Matthews seemed to be set to bat in the middle order for the World Cup, after several strong performances in that position heading into the tournament.  The player was, however, promoted back to the spot she had previously occupied after an injury to Rashada Williams.

“I didn’t know how I felt about it at first, seeing I was pretty comfortable at 5 but I’m the type of player that whatever the team needs, I’m looking to try and do.  It seemed to work out all right."

  

A brilliant century from Hayley Matthews and miraculous death bowling from Deandra Dottin led the West Indies Women to a stunning 3-run victory over New Zealand to open the ICC Women’s World Cup at Mount Maunganui on Friday.

In a wonderful advert for women's cricket, the all-around entertaining affair got the thrilling ending it merited.  With the West Indies needing to defend just 6 runs in the last over, Dottin, who has hardly been seen with the ball over the last few months, stepped up to take 2 for 2, and also effected a run-out, to finally wrap up brave New Zealand resistance in her only over of the match. 

The result meant the West Indies had successfully defended 259 for 9, their third-highest total ever recorded at the tournament.

Earlier, a brilliant 119 of 128 from Matthews, who was named the player of the match, set the stage for the West Indies triumph.  Unexpectedly returning to the top of the order after Rashada Williams was ruled out of the match due to concussion protocol, Matthews hit 16 fours and a six, dispatching New Zealand’s bowlers to all parts of the ground while proving to be the stable catalyst the West Indies needed.

Dottin, who opened with Matthews, had promised a similar type of performance but was sent packing after hitting three fours and skying another attempt to Jess Kerr after playing across the line off Lea Tahuhu. 

With Kycia Knight then departing for just 5, Matthews formed a crucial 66-run partnership with captain Stafanie Taylor, which helped the West Indies reach 100 at a steady five runs an over.  The partnership was broken when Taylor was caught behind after clipping off Tahuhu. 

It was, however, one only of three partnerships Matthews would be involved in as she also paired with Shemaine Campbelle and Chedean Nation to glue the team’s innings together. 

Matthews was eventually dismissed going after Kerr as Hannah Rowe held on to the catch in the deep.  Nation's 46-ball 36 and then Anisa Mohammed's six-ball 11, however, added valuable runs for the team at the end of the innings.  Tahuhu was the pick of the New Zealand bowlers with 3 for 57, while Kerr claimed 2 for 43.

In pursuit, Sophie Devine struck a magnificent century to keep New Zealand's chase on track, for the most part, and Katey Martin and Kerr's quickfire 40-run partnership brought it down to run-a-ball for the last over before the timely intervention of Dottin.

West Indies Women’s all-rounder Hayley Matthews believes the team’s overall experience will be a valuable tool in its armory ahead of the start of the ICC Women's World Cup.

The team will bowl off its campaign with a match against hosts New Zealand on Thursday at 8:00 pm.  Not known for their exploits in the format, the West Indies will not be listed among the favourites but Matthews believes the team has made progress in the last year and will still have the experience and capability to ruffle some feathers.

“For a period of time we were kind of stuck when it came to 50-over cricket, maybe not progressing as much as we wanted to, but I do believe in the last year we have made massive leaps,” Matthews told the ICC channel.

“I think our biggest strength is probably the experience we have in the team.  We have so many veterans from Deandra Dottin, Stafanie Taylor, Anisa Mohammed, and the list goes on.  I think we have people we can rely on in tough situations and they always know how to really breakthrough and take us to the next level," she added.

The team’s captain Taylor and Dottin will be taking part in their fourth tournament, while Mohammed will be taking part in her fifth.

 

The West Indies Women open their Women’s ICC World Cup campaign against New Zealand tonight in poor batting form and Captain Stafanie Taylor believes that if the team is to be competitive, they have to turn that form around and bat with better consistency.

In two warm-up matches against Australia and India, the West Indies Women failed to score 200 runs each time losing by 90 and 81 runs, respectively. And while Head Coach Courtney Walsh preferred to focus on the positives, the realities of the situation are that if they are to do well, they have to produce scores well above 200 runs consistently.

Those thoughts were communicated at a recent team meeting.

"We had our meeting and we said that to be competitive we have to be scoring over two hundred runs," Taylor said in a pre-match interview. "In the two games that we played, we didn't do so. So that's something that we've had a look at and, moving forward, that's something that we need to work at."

Taylor believes the players need to spend time at the crease building innings that will give the team opportunities to get big scores that will give them better chances against Australia, India and tonight’s opponents, New Zealand.

"When it comes down to the longer format, we just need to spend more time out there in the middle. That's an area that we've been falling down a lot in, rotating the strike and try to build more partnerships. We haven't been building a lot of partnerships so hence the reason why we keep falling down in that department," Taylor argued while acknowledging that there has been less dependence of batters like Deandra Dottin, Hayley Matthews and her, to get runs.

In recent times, players like Kycia Knight and Chedean Nation have been getting good scores but other batters still need to step up with greater frequency, Taylor said.

"The other batters are starting to contribute. What we need to do is be in that collective in each game, be consistent. That's something that I've talked about a lot, being consistent, not just one or two batters always performing and probably looking at how teams are playing, a lot more fifties, batters stepping up and taking that responsibility. As batters we have to do that more consistently," Taylor said.

West Indies suffered an 81-run loss to India in their second ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup warm-up match in Rangiora on Tuesday.

India won the toss and decided to bat first, getting to 258 all out from their 50 overs with Smriti Madhana top-scoring, with 66 off 67 balls, and Deepti Sharma getting 51 from 64 deliveries.

Cherry Ann-Fraser (2-24 off 5 overs), Karishma Ramharack (2-50 off 10 overs), and Hayley Matthews (2-47 off 8 overs) were the best bowlers for the Windies.

Despite a top score of 63 from Shemaine Campbelle and 44 from Hayley Matthews, the West Indies chase never got out of first gear and they were eventually restricted to 177-9 off their 50 overs.

Pooja Vastrakar was the pick of the Indian bowlers with 3-21 off seven overs while Meghna Smith, Deepti Sharma, and Rajeshwari Gayakwad all took two wickets each.

The West Indies will kick off their World Cup campaign on Thursday against hosts New Zealand at Mount Maunganui.

 

West Indies Women suffered a 90-run defeat to Australia in their first warm-up match of the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup played at Lincoln Green.

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