England miss out in final heartbreak

An England team featuring Kingswinford’s Hannah Baker and Shropshire’s Ellie Anderson and coached by former Fordhouses player Chris Guest proved no match for their opponents, as they went down by seven wickets in Potchefstroom, South Africa.

For the second match running, England struggled with the bat but whereas they had been able to defend a total of 100 in Friday’s semi-final against Australia – thanks in large part to Baker’s three-wicket haul, their total of 68 yesterday never looked like being enough against India’s high-powered batting line-up.

“We are gutted with the way it went,” said skipper Grace Scrivens, who was named player of the tournament after plundering 293 runs across the fortnight.

“Our batting let us down hugely. We have been so good going hard at bowlers and just couldn’t do that today.”

Having been put into bat, England’s innings began badly when opener Liberty Heap departed for a duck in the first over and things got worse when Scrivens, their most dependable performer, was one of two wickets to fall in the fourth over.

When Central Sparks ace Charis Paveley was out, having scored just two from nine balls, England were teetering at 39-5.

Ryana MacDonald-Gay provided some resistance with 19 from 24 balls, while late hitting from Sophie Smale (11 from seven) brought some cheer but wickets kept tumbling, Titas Sadhu, Archana Devi and Parshavi Chopra finishing with two apiece.

England needed early wickets to stand any chance but while their opponents had excelled in the field, they dropped two catches in the first five overs. Baker at least gave them just a glimmer when she has India captain Shafali Verma caught for 15, to leave the score 20-2.

But there was to be no fairytale, Soumya Tiwari finishing unbeaten on 24 as India cruised home with six overs to spare.

Despite the defeat, the tournament was a hugely positive experience for both England and the women’s game as a whole.

Wednesfield’s Davina Perrin, who at 16 years old was the youngest member of the England squad, played in several matches, while the victorious India team are expected to share around £500,000 in prize money provided by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

It was the first tournament win for India in international women’s cricket.

“Obviously it’s a hard pill to swallow,” added Scrivens. “But I think the way we played throughout the tournament was unbelievable.”

When asked what she said to the players following England’s disappointing first-innings collapse, Scrivens said: “Let’s keep backing ourselves and let’s try and go again, but it’s a tough one when you’re trying to defend a low score.

“But I think we still backed ourselves – obviously India batted well and made well of that total.”