Maia Bouchier defied injury to hit 91 as England Women outpowered New Zealand to win the fourth T20 international in Wellington by 47 runs and clinch the series.

Bouchier’s 91 off 56 balls, her second successive half-century, helped England to 177 for three, Charlie Dean taking four wickets as New Zealand were restricted to 130 for seven.

England lost Danni Wyatt, back in the side after playing in the Women’s IPL, early but Alice Capsey and Bouchier – hampered by a quad injury – added 75 in 10 overs.

Captain Heather Knight (21 not out) and Nat Sciver-Brunt (29 not out) smashed 35 off the final 14 balls to set the hosts a daunting target.

That target was made more daunting without captain Suzie Bates, injured in the field, and England struck at regular intervals.

Dean grabbed four for 26, and Brooke Holliday was at the top scoring, with 25 for the hosts.

The win gives England an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series, which concludes in Wellington on Friday.

New Zealand kept their hopes in the first Test alive as Glenn Phillips took five wickets to bowl Australia out and set a target of 369 on the third day in Wellington.

Nightwatchman Nathan Lyon was the unlikely top scorer for Australia, falling on 41 with his first Test 50 in sight.

Cameron Green continued his form with 34, but all-rounder Phillips spun his way to five wickets and was on a hat-trick after removing Travis Head for 29 and dismissing Mitch Marsh with the next ball.

Phillips finished with 5-45 as Australia were all out for 164.

The Australians struck early in the Blackcaps innings, Lyon dismissing Tom Latham and Kane Williamson for single-digit scores, before part-timer Head removed Will Young for 15.

Rachin Ravindra (56 not out) and Daryl Mitchell (12 not out) dug in for the rest of the day.

Two days remain with New Zealand requiring 257 pull off what would be an incredible victory.

Australia continued their dominance at the 2022 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup with a comprehensive 158-run win over the West Indies in the first semi-final in Wellington.

The match was reduced to 45 overs per team after a rain delay before the toss which the West Indies won the toss and elected to field first.

Australia’s opening pair of Alyssa Healy and Rachael Haynes got off to a slow start while assessing conditions before putting the Windies bowlers to the sword once they got comfortable.

The two ended up putting on a mammoth 216 before Healy was dismissed for a blistering 129 off just 107 balls in the 33rd over.

Healy's innings included 17 fours and one six.

Haynes eventually got to 85 off 100 balls before she became the second wicket to fall with the score on 231 in the 36th over.

Captain Meg Lanning (26 not out) and Beth Mooney (43 not out) then continued the attack for the Australians before the innings closed with them amassing 305-3 off their 45 overs.

Chinelle Henry was the only West Indian who had a decent showing with the ball, taking 2-51 off her nine overs.

The Windies started their reply already at a disadvantage as Anisa Mohammed and Chinelle Henry were both unable to bat after sustaining injuries in the field.

Captain Stafanie Taylor (48), Hayley Matthews (34) and Deandra Dottin (34) were the only West Indian batters to pass double figures as Australia were equally dominant with the ball, restricting the Windies to 148-8 to secure a 158-run win and advance to the final.

Jess Jonassen took 2-14 off five overs.

Australia will be looking for their seventh ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup title and first since 2013 when they play the winner of the second semi-final between South Africa and defending champions England.

The second semi-final takes place on Wednesday in Christchurch.

 

 

 

West Indies Women head coach Courtney Walsh is confident ahead of their 2022 ICC Women’s World Cup semi-final against Australia in Wellington on Tuesday.

Speaking in an interview with Andrew Mason, Walsh, who was appointed as head coach in October 2020 after previously serving as assistant coach to Gus Logie, expressed his confidence and outlined that while the team has played well in stages, they still haven’t put it all together.

“I’m very confident. I think the team deserves to be in the semis. We’ve played some very good cricket while we’ve been here and we still haven’t put it together as a team like we know we can do so this will be the right game to get that started so I’m pretty confident that once we execute and play to our potential, we’ll have a very good game,” he said.

The West Indies got a few days rest after their last game against South Africa last Wednesday, something Walsh says has done the team well.

“We had a couple days away from it which has done us some good. It’s the first break we’ve had since the start of the competition so we had a couple of days where some of the main players were not required to come to practice to give them a chance to recover and the girls who weren’t playing much cricket had a chance to come out and get some decent practice as well. We’re in a good space at the moment,” he said.

“There’s no major concern. We know the areas that we haven’t done well in and the coaches have been trying very hard to get everybody up to speed,” was Walsh’s response when asked about any concerns he had going into the semi-final.

The West Indies will be aiming to advance to their second Women's World Cup final after finishing as runners-up in 2013 in India.

 

 

 

 

 

West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor wants her team to relish the moment ahead of their World Cup semi-final against Australia on Tuesday.

“We want to relish the moment and go out there and play hard cricket,” the all-rounder said in a pre-match press conference on Monday.

The match will be played in Wellington where the West Indies have been awaiting their fate since their last group match against South Africa was rained out last Wednesday.

“We’ve been here for a while now. We’ve been getting used to conditions in the nets so hopefully that should help us in how we play. We just have to take it how it comes and play like a final and, hopefully, we come out on top,” she said.

There was a time not too long ago when a World Cup semi-final seemed like an unreachable dream for the Caribbean side but Taylor says changes over the last couple years have helped the team grow.

“We’ve had some changes to our team and a new coaching staff. I believe the work they’ve been doing with us has changed the way we go about our game,” she said.

“I think we have come a long way. It may not show as much with the score sheet but I feel like we’ve come a long way looking back on series we’ve played. The coaching staff has contributed so much to where we are. I thought we had a really good start to the tournament and hopefully that’s something we could use to get us through in this back-end. Everyone is fit and rearing to go,” Taylor added.

The West Indies will be looking to reach their second World Cup final after being runners up in 2013, losing the final to Australia by 114 runs.

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