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Forget Bondi to Coogee – England are queens of a different seaside town. On Friday night at Hove they sealed their T20 series against West Indies with a nine-wicket win, thanks to a three-wicket haul by new-kid-on-the-block Em Arlott and a captain’s innings of 55 not out from their new skipper, Nat Sciver-Brunt.
The 27-year-old Warwickshire seamer Arlott, having been handed her England cap just 48 hours previously, apparently impressed Charlotte Edwards, the new coach, so much on debut that she was promoted to open the bowling from the Sea End. She subsequently sent down a consecutive four-over spell of such accuracy that it yielded just 14 runs, despite three of the overs being inside the powerplay.
“I was told: ‘You’ll have one in the powerplay and go from there and adjust,’” Arlott said. “It went well, so we carried on. I didn’t imagine I’d bowl four on the trot.”
England’s notably-improved fielding helped Arlott out – Charlie Dean held onto Stafanie Taylor at extra cover, while Sophia Dunkley plucked a screamer out of the air with her left hand at midwicket – but the key intervention was Arlott’s second ball of the day, which shaped nicely into Hayley Matthews and bowled Wednesday’s centurion through the gate.
“She was stood miles down leg stump,” Arlott said. “It was just adjusting my line and creating that angle back into her.”
That scalp was tantamount to sealing victory for England just four overs into the game: West Indies limped on, and even survived their 20 overs, but scraped together just 81 runs. Dean struck twice in two balls in the 14th over, breaking the slow-burn partnership of 34 from 51 balls between Shemaine Campbelle and Shabika Gajnabi as an exasperated Campbelle tried to go over the top and Arlott topped off her evening by snaffling the chance on the boundary rope.
Arlott, who would likely have made her debut in 2022 against South Africa had it not been for an untimely bout of Covid, said the three-year wait had made her even keener to seize her chance. “It’s felt like a long time coming, so I didn’t want to get to the opportunity and then let it get the better of me,” she said.
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“The last time I came into this environment, I don’t think I believed I was good enough, so I didn’t really expect anybody else to believe that I was good enough. I’ve always struggled going into newer teams and not knowing people. In the winter, I went to Perth and I didn’t know anybody, and made myself do something uncomfortable. And actually it’s been really nice that a lot of people have come up to me being like: ‘You’re a different person than you were 12 months ago.’
“I think I’m more content with who I am and not really caring how people take that. I’m really proud of myself for getting to this point.”
England had strolled to a win on Wednesday, but this run-chase was more of a canter: an 82-run partnership between Sciver-Brunt and Dunkley sealed the deal with more than 10 overs to spare. Dunkley continued her form from the first T20, once again nailing the reverse sweep, while Sciver-Brunt’s placement was spot-on in an innings which – for now at least – should put to bed any concerns that the burden of the captaincy might affect her form with the bat.
The only note of concern for England will be the continued poor form of Danni Wyatt-Hodge, who was bowled for a first-ball duck by Zaida James. Edwards may well be tempted to swap in Tammy Beaumont at the top of the order for the third and final T20, at Chelmsford on Monday.
