England withstand Matthews brilliance to claim T20 clean sweep

Chelmsford, the third T20

England 144-5 (20 overs): Knight 66* (47), Matthews 3-32

West Indies 127-8 (20 overs): Matthews 71 (54), Bell 2-11

England won the series by 17 runs and 3-0.

In Charlotte Edwards and Nat Sciver-Brunt’s first series in charge, England fought back from 17 runs to win the third and final T20 of all-time champion Hayley Matthews.

In the West Indies’ pursuit of 145 for a consolation win at Chelmsford, Matthews was playing alone, but a rain delay and 48 runs needed from the final 26 balls prevented the chase.

With a stunning 71 from 54 balls in the 18th over, Lauren Bell claimed the game-changing wicket from Matthews for a stunning 109-3.

Bell’s stellar performance included the 2-11 totals of Charlie Dean and Linsey Smith, who both scored two wickets, along with fellow quick Em Arlott and Linsey Smith, who both took two wickets.

In England’s 144-5 victory over the West Indies, Matthews had a much improved bowling performance, but Heather Knight’s unbeaten 66 from 47 balls left England with just enough runs on the board.

After Zaida James’ spin for the second game in a row caused Danni Wyatt-Hodge to bowl her from the first ball of the innings, and Sophia Dunkley was caught behind off Matthews for three, Knight and new captain Sciver-Brunt rebuilt the innings from a 24-2 stuttering powerplay.

The experienced duo added 48 for the third wicket before Sciver-Brunt added 37, and Knight added 42 with wicketkeeper Amy Jones, who scored 22 in a quickfire.

There was much discussion and expectation that Knight’s removal from the England captaincy would give her more freedom to play for her. In her first two knocks, that has already come to fruition.

She scored 43 not out in her first T20 against home at Canterbury and was not required to bat in her second. She then hit 38 balls to complete her strong performance to reach her first international T20 half-century there.

West Indies were compensated for their much more consistent bowling effort by sticking to a straightforward strategy of keeping the stumps in play and squeezing England’s batters as much as possible with a little assistance from a surface that helped their spin-heavy attack.

After England posted their second-lowest T20 powerplay score when they batted first at home, with only two boundaries struck in the opening six overs, it meant that Knight had to work through the gears, focusing on rotating the strike and picking the gaps in her partnership with Sciver-Brunt.

After Sciver-Brunt was caught on the boundary at the end of the eleventh over, Jones’ counter-attacking knock made it easier for Knight to hit an enormous six midwicket and produce a number of cheeky ramps and paddles off the spinners.

Although she struggled between the wickets in the final couple of overs with her injury, her return to the batting ranks has been very encouraging.

Matthews’ incredible talent and the team’s unsustainable reliance on her perfectly sum up both her superb talent and the fact that her team won two player of the match awards and was named player of the series.

She has 177 runs scored in three innings, including an unbeaten century in the first match, with Shabika Gajnabi’s 47th as her next highest total overall.

For the first time in women’s T20 internationals, a player had scored 70 or more runs and taken three or more wickets in a losing cause at Chelmsford.

In her knock, she struck 11 fours and a six, smartly and consistently exposing her distinctive lofted drives over cover, which resulted in England being on the verge of a 49-ball winning run.

England’s fielding issues began to deteriorate once more as a result, Sciver-Brunt and Dean dropping Realeanna Grimmond from successive balls off the latter’s own bowling in the eleventh over.

However, England was helped by the rain delay. When the players left the field, they were nine runs ahead of them on Duckworth Lewis Stern (DLS), but a four from Matthews and a strong straight six from Gajnabi gave West Indies a run.

However, Smith fought back with two wickets in two balls, including Gajnabi, and Matthews hit Bell’s long-on, slower ball in the next over to all but seal England’s victory.

To reach that score was very difficult given how we initially started our innings. We had a hard time with the West Indies. That was the perfect batting effort to help us reach a competitive total.

Hayley Matthews, the player of the match and the series, on Sky Sports: “It was really nice to be able to go out there and score some runs and take some wickets. Today, we felt like we had a more close game than we did today. We’d have loved to cross the line.

“The younger players who have signed here are really happy and very proud of me.”

Ebony Rainford-Brent, winner of the World Cup, said in a BBC Test Match Special: “England should have scored another 20 runs and maybe should have forced wickets more.