West Indies Women’s captain Stafanie Taylor scored an unbeaten half-century to help her team scored an eight-run win over Deandra Dottin’s in their first warm-up match at the University of Derby on Monday ahead of their T20 series against England, in a week's time

The 18 members of the squad were divided into two teams captained by Stafanie Taylor and Deandra Dottin, respectively.

Taylor scored 71 from 52 balls. She smashed nine fours in her knock as the team racked up 131 for 6 from their 20 overs. Britney Cooper contributed a useful 24 to the score. Bowling for the opponents, Aaliyah Alleyne used her pace to good effect taking 3 for 35 while Shakera Selman finished with 2 for 15.

Needing 132 to win Dottin led her team from the front scoring a brisk 41 from 43 balls but the efforts of Sheneta Grimmond (2 for 16) and Shamilia Taylor (2 for 23), proved good enough for Taylor’s team to eke out a close victory.

Head coach Andre Coley was pleased with the performance of the women.

“We’ve been here for two weeks doing a combination of various skills sessions in the nets, strength and conditioning and game-planning but today was our first time to get as close to a game scenario with this practice match,” he said.

“We split the teams as evenly as possible and some very promising performances came out of that. Both teams were able to bat the full 20-over innings and the players spent time at the crease building partnerships. So, that was good to see and we are happy with how things went. Now it’s just about fine-tuning and building momentum leading into the series next week.”

The first match of the five-match Vitality Series is set to bowl off on Monday, September 21 at the Incora County Ground.