West Indies, who were unable to qualify going into today’s match, won the toss and chose to bowl. Lauren Winfield and Tammy Beaumont put on 47 for the first wicket before Winfield fell and on a slow pitch England were never able to find fluency.

A mature innings from captain Heather Knight (67) and some lower-order nous from Jenny Gunn (24*) and Laura Marsh (31*) took England to 220 and in reply West Indies were never able to get going. They reached 128-9 with Nat Sciver taking 3-3.

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Wilson’s 79 had looked like giving England a chance in what would have been a record-breaking chase but when she was run out with 53 still required there was too much left to do for England’s lower order.

India batted first after being put in and they amassed 281-3 from their 50 overs, opener Smriti Mandhana top-scoring with 90 and fellow opener Punam Raut making 86. England move on to Leicester, where they will face Pakistan on Tuesday June 27.

India’s top three put on a batting display to grace the highest stage as they edged a gripping contest at Derby on the opening day of the 2017 Women’s World Cup.

Match Scorecard

Openers Poonam Raut and Smrti Mandhana scored 86 and 90 respectively, and captain Mithali Raj produced a record-breaking seventh consecutive ODI half-century, in an imposing 281 for three from 50 overs.

Left-handed Mandhana played the most aggressive of the three innings, showing the new ball little respect as she cut and pulled regular boundaries in the opening power-play. She was set for an emotional hundred and looked forlorn when, on 90, she hit Heather Knight to Dani Hazell at midwicket.

Raut played conservatively in compiling 86 from 134 balls, and all-rounder Harmanpreet Kaur hit a quickfire 24, but Raj proved the class act in her fifth World Cup.

Scoring 71 from 73 deliveries with consummate ease, she now has the record for consecutive ODI fifties and her career tally of 47 ODI half-centuries is the highest in the women’s game. So at ease is she in this environment, she was pictured reading a book on the boundary edge five minutes before going out to bat!

To win, England would have had to beat their best ever run-chase and the second highest in any women’s ODI. Despite that, they made a real fist of the task at hand.

Heather Knight held the middle order together with a resolute 46 as India maintained a tight grip early in the innings. Beaumont, Taylor, and Sciver had fallen at regular interrvals, with Pandey the pick of the bowlers, before Knight and Fran Wilson started to fight back. When Katherine Brunt joined Wilson to put on 62 in 8 overs, a home win looked a real possibility.

Batting at number six, Fran Wilson’s 81 was an innings of real quality; having started cautiously with her captain, she started playing more expansive strokes in tandem with the combative, energetic Brunt. Her demise, though, was telling (and in a few months, may be considered not out… but that’s another story). She, Heather Knight, and Katherine Brunt all fell to run-outs, as did Jenny Gunn. Resulting from a mixture of bad luck, poor judgement, and some great fielding, it was enough to tip the balance of a tight run-chase just in India’s favour.

Speaking after the game, Heather Knight was disappointed, but not dispirited, and she’s confident as England head to Leicester to face Pakistan on Tuesday.

“We didn’t get our lengths right at the start, and conceded too many runs early on. Our bowlers will accept they didn’t bowl the way they wanted to, but we have two of the best bowlers in the World and I expect them to bounce back.”

In today’s other match New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by 9 wickets.  You can see all the fixtures here.

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England’s 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup qualification campaign is on track following a 2-1 One-Day International (ODI) series victory against South Africa in the final pairing of round four in the ICC Women’s Championship.

With two points awarded for a win and none for a loss, England secured four of the six points available from the three ODIs against South Africa, after successfully completing 7 and 5 wicket victories in the first and third matches of the series.

The 2-1 series win means that England are now tied on 13 points with South Africa in the ICC Women’s Championship table, behind leaders Australia (20 points), the West Indies (16 points) and New Zealand (14 points).

Speaking immediately after the third and final ICC Women’s Championship fixture against South Africa in Johannesburg today, England women’s captain, Charlotte Edwards, said:

“The ICC Women’s Championship brings context and consequence to every ODI series that we now play, which is great for the standard and development of women’s international cricket.  We are obviously disappointed not to have secured the full six points available for this series, but to come away with four points against a strong South African side away from home is still a pleasing result for us.

“The last three matches have ebbed and flowed for us performance-wise.  We have shown glimpses of what we are capable of with both bat and ball, but to be competitive with the best teams in the world we still need to be more consistent.  We are starting to show signs of the positive, proactive and fearless cricket that we want to play, and I hope we can take this into the T20I series starting in Paarl on Thursday, and then the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 in India next month.”

England women will play their three remaining rounds of the ICC Women’s Championship over the next eight months, hosting Pakistan in June and July, and then travelling to the West Indies and Sri Lanka before Christmas in order to complete their 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup qualification campaign.

England and South Africa now travel to Cape Town to play back-to-back T20 Internationals (T20I) on 18^th and 19^th February at Boland Park and Newlands Cricket Ground, before finishing the tour with the third and final T20I at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, on 21^st February.  The matches on 19^th and 21^st February at Newlands and the Wanderers will be played as double-headers with the men’s T20Is between South Africa and England.

Pictures above Sarah Taylor (who reached her 100th cap in the 2nd ODI) by Don Miles

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Gloucestershire (Photo: Dan Mullan/Getty Images for ECB)

The England and Wales Cricket board (ECB) have announced the five host grounds for the ICC Women’s World Cup in 2017.

The ICC has confirmed Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Somerset (above), Gloucestershire (right) and Lord’s will host the competition’s 31 matches starting on June 26^th  next year – with the Home of Cricket set to stage the final on July 23^rd.

It will be the first time that the tournament has been held in England since 1993 when the home side beat New Zealand in the final at Lord’s, revisiting the scene of their triumph in 1973 in the first Women’s World Cup Final against Australia.

Steve Elworthy, ECB’s Director of Events said: “This is a very exciting time for the women’s game in this country and staging a Women’s World Cup here will really help drive interest and participation in women’s cricket at every level.

“It’s critical we use this event to reach out to young children in particular so we’ve moved the tournament start date to earlier in the summer – a decision which will help our host venues encourage attendance by engaging with schools in the build-up to the event.”

Clare Connor, ECB’s Director of England Women’s Cricket and Chair of the ICC Women’s Cricket Committee, said: “At a global level, the introduction of the ICC Women’s Championship has made our game more competitive and exciting than ever before. It has created global context and meaning to all our ODI series whereby the result of every match has a direct impact on qualification for next summer’s World Cup.”

“In this country, last summer’s record-breaking attendances for the Women’s Ashes series showed there is a growing audience and appetite for women’s cricket – we witnessed excellent crowds, including full houses at Chelmsford and Hove, coupled with growing media and commercial interest.

“The launch of the new Women’s Cricket Super League here later this year will give the women’s game another significant fillip and help set the stage for what promises to be a fantastic showcase for our sport next summer. “

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