On a Baltic evening at Derby, West Indies unsuccessfully attempted to inject some fire into their Twenty20 series against England, reducing their opponents to 96 for six before a lower‑order fightback from Sarah Glenn (26 off 19 balls) and Katherine Brunt (18 off 14) took the hosts to a total of 151 for eight – 47 runs too many for the visitors.
Their wicketkeeper, Shemaine Campbelle, was instrumental in pegging England back initially with two stumpings and assisting in a run-out but was left ruing her one error behind the stumps after she put Glenn down on 10, allowing the No 8 to show her mettle with the bat.
Glenn then made a crucial intervention with the ball, trapping the in-form Deandra Dottin lbw in the 12th over of West Indies’ reply with a leg-break with which a desperate DRS review could find no fault. She followed it up in her next over with the equally critical wicket of the captain, Stafanie Taylor, stumped by Amy Jones.
West Indies had for a time looked on course thanks to the 61-run partnership between Dottin (38 off 40) and Taylor (28 off 31): England were so anxious to dislodge the pairing that they burned through their two reviews in the space of three overs – Dottin struck outside the line against Nat Sciver, while Taylor was saved by height against Sophie Ecclestone.
But once the pair were dislodged it was an all too familiar story, West Indies falling way behind the rate.
Earlier, with England unchanged from Monday’s win, Tammy Beaumont had looked to follow up her half-century in the first match by helping herself to easy pickings against Hayley Matthews – the off-spinner’s single over in the powerplay going for 12 runs.
But Shakera Selman’s introduction to the attack in the fourth over halted the onslaught – Beaumont dancing down the wicket only to send up a catch to Chinelle Henry at mid-on.
Selman’s chance to pick up a second went begging, the seamer putting down a return catch from Sciver. Campbelle, though, made up for it in the next over with two brilliant pieces of work behind the stumps – whipping the bails off to stump Sciver (8), and gathering a throw in from Dottin at backward point four balls later to run out Danni Wyatt (14) – leaving England 45 for three in the seventh.
By the time Campbelle intervened again in the 15th to have Fran Wilson stumped, England were 96 for six – Jones (25) and Heather Knight (17) also back in the dugout. Fletcher had put Knight down at short third man on 0, but eventually got her revenge as the England captain was caught in the deep trying to slog-sweep the leg-spinner.
Fortunately for England, Brunt and Glenn appeared not to feel the September cold, sharing a 46-run partnership for the seventh wicket. Brunt’s contribution may have been more biff than finesse, but she an effective foil for Glenn, who showed why her batting in the intra-squad warm-ups has so impressed the coach, Lisa Keightley, with some beautiful crisp cutting for four.
West Indies now have one final chance to prevent the series turning into a dead rubber on Saturday, when the third match of five is played at the same venue.