NEWS
Follow UsEverything was going well for England in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 till their final group game against the West Indies on October 15 (Tuesday). England won their first three matches of the tournament and looked certain to qualify for the semis.
However, that’s when a couple of big wins for the West Indies and South Africa took their NRRs above England’s, and a defeat in their last group game knocked Heather Knight and Co. out of the 20-over showpiece event. England went down to the West Indies by six wickets, allowing them to chase down a target of 142 in just 18 overs in Dubai.
“That's the World Cup, isn't it? It's pretty brutal. It will take a bit of time. The players will be really reflective. We've got a really strong group. The group will stick together. That's one thing they definitely will do. They work well together, and they work for each other, and they'll support each other, and the staff will rally around them and support them as best we can,” said head coach John Lewis after the loss.
“The reality of the situation is we didn't play well enough today and we got beat by a better side on the day. So that's sport, and that's World Cup sport, and it's a knockout game. So even though we're in the group stages, it's pretty much a quarterfinal. We knew that coming into the game. I don't quite know how the net run rate works, but we knew we had to win the game. So, we'll dig into that and we'll work out why that is, and we'll try and move the team forward from there.”
The Dubai surface hasn’t been great for batting, so when England got 141 in the first innings, everyone felt that might prove to be enough for the West Indies. However, Hayley Matthews (38-ball 50) and Qiana Joseph (38-ball 52) came out all guns blazing in the second innings and put on 102 runs for the opening wicket in just 12.2 overs. What helped the Women in Maroon was England dropping 5-6 catches,
“I think at halfway, I thought we had a pretty good total on the board, 145, I think, was what we thought was a pretty good total. We didn't execute as well as we have done for probably the past year or so with the ball, and in the field, we dropped a lot of catches and you can't afford to drop six catches,” said Lewis.
“I think we dropped six catches, and it was the opening batter six times, and she chanced her arm, and she got away with some good hits, she struck the ball really well, and unfortunately, we weren't able to, once they got off to that good start, we weren't able to create enough pressure through the middle of the game to hold them back and fair play to the West Indies.”
Lewis also admitted that England "drifted off" when they were put under pressure in the second innings. “That is not a reaction you want to see as a coach when you are on the sidelines. You could see after six or seven overs we were starting to be like 'oh crikey, we are up against it here'. You could see a lot of the players starting to drift off, especially our energy in the field and we played a lot slower.
"It isn't helpful that our captain [Heather Knight] was off the field, and then someone else has to take over the job, so there is probably a lot more discussion happening on the field than would happen. I went on at the drinks' interval to remind them what we are about as a group and a team, and they responded to that really well, I thought.
“There was a period of three or four overs where we looked deflated as a side because we had taken some punches. When you have taken some punches, and you are on the ropes, it can be hard to keep bouncing back, but I thought they did after the drinks interval. We executed much better after that point, but it was a tricky period of time for us and is something we will reflect on for sure."
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