England crush West Indies to seal T20 series win

Second T20, Hove

West Indies 81-9 (20 overs): Arlott 3-14, Bell 3-28

England 82-1 (9.2 overs): Sciver-Brunt 55* (30)

England won by nine wickets; lead series 2-0

Scorecard

England took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the T20 series with a dominant nine-wicket thrashing of West Indies at Hove.

Chasing just 82 to win, England reached their target off 9.2 overs with new captain Nat Sciver-Brunt unbeaten on 55 from 31 balls and Sophia Dunkley scoring 24 not out.

Danni Wyatt-Hodge fell to the first ball of the innings, the only bright spark in another dismal display from the tourists and another completely one-sided contest.

West Indies slipped to 29-4 before eventually crawling to 81-9 as they had no answers to England's impressive discipline and aggression with the ball.

Seamer Em Arlott, in just her second international outing, finished with 3-14, including the key breakthroughs of Windies skipper Hayley Matthews for six and veteran batter Stafanie Taylor for a duck.

Pace bowler Lauren Bell took 3-28 and spinner Charlie Dean bowled a miserly spell of 2-12 from her four overs.

Shemaine Campbelle and Shabika Gajnabi were the only two West Indies batters to reach double figures, scoring 26 and 22 respectively, and only eight boundaries were scored in their entire innings, which also included 74 dot balls.

The third and final T20 takes place at Chelmsford on Monday.

New head coach Charlotte Edwards' revamping of England's seam attack seems to have injected much-needed energy and life into the side after their miserable winter.

Bell, who was one of few England players to emerge from the Women's Ashes with credit, continues to impress as leader of the attack. She claimed the breakthrough with Qiana Joseph caught and bowled for four in the first over.

Matthews scored an unbeaten century in the opening match at Canterbury and a glorious lofted cover drive for four off Arlott suggested she was carrying that form forward, only for the seamer to remove the Windies captain's leg stump next ball.

The dismissal was greeted by a roar of delight from England and the collapse that followed proved why.

After the six-over powerplay, West Indies were 30-4 as Arlott added the wicket of Zaida James to her tally, phenomenally caught by a one-handed diving Dunkley at mid-wicket.

Campbelle and Gajnabi's fifth-wicket stand of 34 was simply delaying the inevitable, the former caught at long-on by Arlott off Dean having become frustrated in her 36-ball knock and Mandy Mangru was bowled next ball.

England were clinical and disciplined, giving little away, but West Indies' batters could not be proactive enough to throw the bowlers off their length and their reliance on Matthews is becoming increasingly stark.

Sciver-Brunt's captaincy era started with a win but also personal disappointment as she fell for a duck in the first T20, but she responded in fine style here.

Wyatt-Hodge missed a drifting delivery from James first ball but Sciver-Brunt was batting with the confidence and freedom that chasing such a modest total allowed, and reached her half-century from just 27 balls - her second-fastest in T20 internationals.

She struck 10 fours all around the ground, once again cashing in against a toothless West Indies' attack.

Dunkley, who made a career-best 81 in the first match, was able to take a back seat and rotate the strike for her captain at the other end as England cantered to victory with 64 balls to spare.

That is only bettered by the 87 balls remaining against the same opponents in 2022, an occasion where Sciver-Brunt also hit the winning runs.

After being outplayed once more, it is difficult to see West Indies finishing the tour with a single win and their batting in particular is a huge cause for concern for the three one-day internationals that follow this series.