England Women took a 1-0 lead over the West Indies Women following their 142-run victory in the first ODI at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua on Sunday.
Batting first, England was led by Natalie Sciver, who scored a game-high 90 from 96 balls, amassed 307-7 from their 50 overs. Sciver and Dani Wyatt shared in a fifth-wicket partnership of 103 in just under 17 overs that took the match beyond the reach of the West Indies Women. Wyatt contributed 68 to the mammoth total.
Tammy Beaumont (33) and Amy Jones (30) also made useful contributions.
Chinelle Henry was the best of the West Indies bowlers taking 3-59. Afy Fletcher took 2-66.
The West Indies Women were never able to cope with the demand of scoring more than six runs an over and unable to form useful partnerships, were bowled out for 165 in 40.3 overs. The exception was a 70-run second wicket partnership between Kycia Knight and Rashada Williams that produced a respectable 70 runs. Both were dismissed for 39 and 34, respectively.
Captain Hayley Matthews, who retired hurt early on, returned to score 34 for the home side.
Charlie Dean took 4-35 and Kate Cross 2-27 for the victors.
Matthews lamented her team’s inability to stick to the game plan.
"Both facets of the game (batting and bowling) we didn't do what we wanted on a decent and England was able to capitalize on it,” the captain said.
“We're going back to the drawing board and see what we can improve on in the next game. Our power play was pretty good but we let a little too many runs go by in the middle overs. It was good to see the partnership between Kycia and Rashada and I hope we can get a few more of those.”