England Shocked by West Indies in WT20 World Cup Upset

Markus Conneely on 1 November 2024

The West Indies’ comprehensive six-wicket win against England was Women’s Cricket’s biggest upset of the year and saw one of the favourites dumped out of the WT20 World Cup in the UAE. The final group game served as a de facto quarter-final, with England’s first innings score of 141 made to look diminutive by powerful West Indian hitting.

England, a major powerhouse on and off the pitch, were perfect across the last home summer, accumulating 13 wins from 13 completed games. Typically, bilateral series are where they play their best cricket, too often unable to manage the intense scrutiny of knockout matches. Their group stage exit in this year’s edition follows semi-final heartbreak at the last WT20 World Cup, the 2022 Commonwealth Games, as well as a crushing 50-over World Cup final loss against Australia in 2022.

England dropping five catches against the West Indies was indicative of a team feeling the pressure, conscious of their recent past. Windies opener Qiana Joseph, promoted to the top of the order despite a batting average of 14, took advantage of England’s mediocrity and rose to the most significant occasion of her sporting career. The Saint Lucian smeared England’s attack to all corners on the way to a career-best 52. In conjunction with Deandra Dottin, the team’s talisman, they exhibited the brute force that exists across the Caribbean, to which England had no answer.

The West Indies’ achievement is even more impressive when considering the economic disparity between the two teams. England will have eight entirely professional regional women’s teams by 2025, whilst the West Indies can only afford a skeletal system that supports a small number of centrally contracted players.

Grenadian Leg spinner Afy Fletcher, who stung England through the middle overs and claimed the best figures of the match (3/21), is isolated from the sparse coaching in the Caribbean for most of the year. Rather than spending her days in a high-performance centre, she predominantly trains independently with her partner, a local club cricketer.

In contrast, England’s domestic pathway has been transformed since the pandemic. Only Australia, who have dominated women’s cricket for a decade, has similar opportunities and resources available to female cricketers.

England enjoy comparisons to the all-conquering Australian Women’s side, but in the recent past, they haven’t won the trophies to justify them. Failure to qualify from the group stages was made all the more painful when Australia went on to be knocked out by South Africa in the semi-finals; England have missed a golden opportunity to make up ground on the old enemy. Fortunately, 2025 is another World Cup year, and they’ll be given every opportunity to banish their tournament demons.

Words by Markus Conneely

US Open verdict:A poor end to the year

James Blackburn on 14 September 2024

James Blackburn discusses his verdict on the US Open; ‘Tired players, low quality matches and boring winners made this renewal one to forget‘

Arthur Ashe stadium is the largest in all of tennis and is so often the booming soundtrack to iconic matches: think Kim Clijsters’ comeback win in 2009, Andy Murray breaking his major duck in 2012 at the fifth time of asking or deafening boos during the controversial 2018 Williams-Osaka final. This year, though, you could be forgiven for thinking this was a 500 event, such was the lack of enthusiasm from the crowds.

The men’s tournament in particular was disappointing. Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic’s shock second round exits were indicative of a post-Olympics burnout, unsurprising given the emotional toll of that epic gold medal match on both men, clearing the way for a fresh Jannik Sinner to claim his second hard court slam of the year. 

That Sinner would play just days after being embroiled in a doping controversy for having a trace amount of Clostebol, a steroid, in his system (he has been ruled not at fault by an independent tribunal, though the World Anti-Drug Agency is still investigating) meant that his own celebration was understated and left a cloud hanging over the tournament. 

Sinner’s straight sets win in the final over Fritz felt inevitable, despite Sinner rarely reaching his mercurial best throughout over the fortnight, which left fans struggling to engage in what was already an historic match given Fritz was the first American man in a slam final since 2009. Jeopardy was scarce in this contest save for Fritz going a break up in the third, before Sinner quickly reestablished his authority to win. 

Working backwards from the semis, what should’ve been a feast of tennis — the All-American showdown between Fritz and Francis Tiafoe — ended on a down note after Tiafoe crumbled in the fifth. You had the bizarre Sinner-Draper match where the Brit vomited a number of times on court in what felt like the longest three-setter ever due to Sinner’s forehand going missing. 

Tiafoe-Dimitrov in the quarters ended with a heartbreaking retirement for the Bulgarian; we were robbed of a contest between Draper and Alex De Minaur owing to the reoccurence of De Minaur’s hip injury; Sinner-Medvedev didn’t live up to expectation… I could go on.

Why were all these matches not up to standard then? I think the answer lies in the gruelling schedule on the ATP and WTA tour in 2024. Several players have expressed their frustration with the non-stop tennis season, such as women’s World No.1 Iga Swiatek who has voiced concerns about the impact of the schedule on players’ physical and mental wellbeing, stating that “we don’t have time to work on stuff or live peacefully.” Olympic silver medallist Donna Vekic echoed Swiatek’s sentiment, saying that “the schedule is absolutely brutal” and that “you don’t have time to relax, get rest before you start training again.”

Words by James Blackburn

Cover image credit : The Standard/ Reuters