Ecclestone’s miserly three-wicket haul compounds West Indies’ woes
Valkerie Baynes10-Dec-2022Nat Sciver was in the runs – again – and the wickets as England wrapped up a 3-0 sweep of their ODI series against West Indies in Antigua.Sciver, the player of the match and the series, scored her second half-century in three games after having made her comeback on this tour from a three-month mental-health break, setting a record for most ODI runs by an England woman cricketer in a calendar year in the process.Her 85 off 69 balls to steady England from 84 for 4 took her to 833 ODI runs for 2022 and past Claire Taylor’s 2005 mark of 807 despite missing the three matches against India in September. It followed her 96-ball 90 in the first match against West Indies, which marked her return to action.Related
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Sciver also took two important wickets in an excellent bowling performance by England, led by Sophie Ecclestone’s miserly three-wicket haul, as West Indies collapsed to 105 in pursuit of 257.For the second match in a row, West Indies failed to capitalise after bowling England out inside their 50-over allocation and they have now gone 11 ODI innings without reaching 200.Apart from captain Hayley Matthews, who had given her side a chance by claiming the wickets of Sciver, Danni Wyatt and Charlie Dean as England were bowled out for 256 in 43.3 overs, West Indies’ batting performance was poor, with no one else passing 13.Even Matthews’ 28 from 39 fell well short, but she started well enough with some exquisite extra-cover drives early on off Freya Davies, in the side for Lauren Bell, who was rested following her crucial four-wicket haul in Tuesday’s second match.Matthews fell to a brilliant one-handed catch by Ecclestone, launching herself to her right at slip to pluck the ball off Kate Cross and put West Indies at 40 for 1 in the 11th over.Cross was extremely economical with 1 for 14 from her seven overs, but left-arm spinner Ecclestone was next-level in that department with 48 dot balls in her nine overs, which yielded three wickets for just nine runs. Offspinner Dean was also frugal with 40 dot balls in eight overs and 1 for 16.West Indies’ run rate nosedived after Matthews’ dismissal. Sciver had Kycia Knight caught by Tammy Beaumont and pinned Rashada Williams, who had scored an unbeaten half-century in the second match, lbw either side of Dean’s removal of Aaliyah Alleyne, stumped for 8 as West Indies lost three wickets without a run in the space of ten balls.Hayley Matthews played her part with ball and bat, but there was little support from her team-mates•Hagen Hopkins/ICC/Getty Images
Ecclestone then had two in an over when she removed Chedean Nation for a laboured 10 off 30 balls and Chinelle Henry, both lbw, to make it 91 for 7 at the end of the 32nd over. From there, the tail fell away and with Shakera Selman unable to bat because of injury, the home side posted their worst total of the series.Earlier, Kaysia Schultz, the left-arm orthodox spinner on debut, had claimed the wickets of opener Emma Lamb, ending a 63-run opening stand with Beaumont, and No. 3 Sophia Dunkley before Sciver and Wyatt steadied England with an 80-run partnership for the fifth wicket.Sciver clipped a fuller ball from Cherry-Ann Fraser to the boundary through backward square-leg to bring up her 20th ODI fifty. But Matthews brought herself back into the attack in the 28th over and prised out two key wickets, tossing one up to get an advancing Wyatt stumped, before her full, flighted delivery slid under Sciver’s attempted slog-sweep and clattered into leg stump.Selman had bowled Beaumont as England went from 63 for 0 to 65 for 2 and she grabbed her second when she trapped Ecclestone lbw and England wobbled again at 218 for 7.Matthews enticed Dean with a well-flighted delivery that resulted in a return catch and, after Cross fell to Selman’s yorker, Henry – who had seen chances go down off Wyatt and Amy Jones – had Davies caught by Shemaine Campbelle at cover point.That left Amy Jones, still standing in for resting captain Heather Knight as she returns from hip surgery, stranded on 32 off 31 balls following her impressive 70 not out in the second game.Jon Lewis, England’s new head coach, now has three wins from as many games in charge and both Jones and Sciver spoke positively about the more aggressive approach he has tried to instil in the side since taking over from Lisa Keightley late last month.”We’re committing to a style of play and we’re fully backed,” Jones told BT Sport. “Whilst it’s not going to come off every time, we’ve made three pretty decent scores in this series anyway, so it’s definitely a good thing for us going forward. It’s something we’re going to commit to for sure.”Sciver added: “I’m feeling really good about being back and really positive about being back with this team and with a new coach who’s really helped us to see a different way of playing.”Matthews was in no doubt that her side’s batting had continued to let them down, having posted totals of 165 and 118 in the first two matches, both of which England won by 142 runs.”Any time you come into an ODI series and the top score is 160, you’re probably missing out a bit with the bat,” Matthews said. “It’s definitely an area that we need to pay more attention to, find a way to score more runs on the whole, hopefully we can do that in the T20 series coming up. This series was disappointing but as a team I reckon we’ll learn from it a whole lot and hopefully we can take some of those learnings into the series we have coming up.”The sides play the first of five T20Is on Sunday in Antigua before moving on to Barbados for the remaining four.
