Taylor pleased despite loss to England

Barbadian Deandra Dottin continued her good form with the bat, and also for the first time contributed with the ball. However, her efforts weren’t good enough to prevent the West Indies from going down by 20 runs to England in the third T20 International in Derby.

The loss enabled England to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series, as the Caribbean side, who were chasing for the third straight game, managed to get to 134 for five in pursuit of 155 for victory.

For the third game running, Dottin came up trumps with the bat, as her 63 from 56 balls at the top of the order gave the regional side a glimmer of hope, as they kept pace with the run rate.

The Windies opted to switch up the batting order, sending Lee-Ann Kirby to open the innings with Dottin. That move didn’t spark, as Kirby contributed just three runs in a 30-run opening stand before she was stumped off Natalie Sciver.

Wicketkeeper Shemaine Campbelle didn’t last long either, as she holed out off Katherine Brunt for five at 35 for two.

Dottin then found a useful partner in Hayley Matthews, as the pair put on a valuable 48 runs for the third wicket.

That batting momentum was halted by spinner Sarah Glenn, who trapped both Matthews for 21 and Chadean Nation, who was getting her first game, for three at 91 for four.

HOPES DASHED

Any hopes of overhauling the total were dented when Dottin, who achieved 2,500 T20 runs in the process, was caught by Fran Wilson in the deep of Brunt for a well-played 63, which included nine fours and a six.

Captain Stafanie Taylor, who batted at number six, was left unbeaten on 14 and Chinelle Henry 12 as the Windies inched to 134.

Earlier, it was a decent bowling effort from the Windies girls; however, the last five overs of the English innings proved once again to be their Achilles’ heel.

England, as they did in the previous contest, scored over 50 runs in the last five overs to spruce up their total, which was built largely thanks to a player-of-the-match innings of 82 from Natalie Sciver.

The regional girls didn’t do themselves any favours in the field either, as they put down some chances in the chilly conditions.

Dottin, who was bowling for the first time in the series, picked up two wickets along with opening seamer Shamelia Connell.

Despite the loss, captain Stafanie Taylor was pleased with the team’s batting and explained the reshuffling of the order.

“I’m really pleased with the way we went about our batting,” said Taylor. “I talked about intent, and the intent was there from the get-go. We had a long discussion about it – changing the batting order, and we thought that we needed a bit more firepower up top, and that we needed a stable middle, hence, we reshuffled.”