England women 220 for 7 (Knight 67, Beaumont 42, Fletcher 3-33) beat West Indies women 128 for 9 (Matthews 29, Sciver 3-3) by 92 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Heather Knight brought England back into the game with a well-paced half-century © Getty Images
West Indies threw away a top-class spin-bowling performance by showing a dismal lack of intent with the bat on a slow and low pitch in Bristol. Having shown little urgency for large parts of an admittedly tricky chase of 221, West Indies tried to force the issue and lost wickets in a cluster. They ended up ambling to 128 for 9 as England ended the group stage of the 2017 Women’s World Cup on top of the table.
England had hardly been clinical themselves when they batted. They played all around the legspin of Afy Fletcher, whose incisive spell ripped through England and gave her figures of 3 for 33 in 10 overs. With Anisa Mohammed and Hayley Matthews playing more than just a supporting hand, the trio tied down England until their captain Heather Knight mounted a late fightback with a superbly-paced 67.
The cushion provided by those extra runs was all England needed to grab the game by the scruff of the neck. West Indies didn’t threaten for so much as a moment during their chase. Unlike in England’s innings, it was a medium pacer – Natalie Sciver – that inflicted the bulk of the damage. With her team having already combined to reduce West Indies to 73 for 4, Sciver struck thrice in the space of 15 balls to push West Indies into a hole they could never get out of.
Full report to follow
Akshay Gopalakrishnan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo