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England’s Caribbean cruise at the World Twenty20 finally set sail as they jogged to a comfortable win over unfancied Bangladesh, with Loughborough Lightning’s Kirstie Gordon describing a “special” night in front of her proud parents as she put in a Player of the Match performance with three wickets on her England debut.
“I didn’t know if I was going to make my debut tonight,” said Gordon afterwards. “We didn’t even know if we were going to get a game in, so it was really special to make my debut and to pick up some wickets as well.”
Gordon - a former Scotland player, who moved to England two years ago to study at Loughborough University - was selected on form, having finished the domestic season as the leading wicket-taker in both the 50-over Women’s County Championship and the T20 Kia Super League; but the 21-year-old admitted that she was surprised by her selection in the England squad for this tournament.
“I absolutely did not expect to be out here [but] it is really great to be part of this team and I think we can achieve great things.”
England made a steady start towards those great things here.
Having been put in after England skipper Heather Knight won the toss, Bangladesh made laborious progress, losing two early wickets to finish the powerplay at 12-2, with Anya Shrubsole finding some useful swing in humid conditions at the Darren Sammy Ground in St Lucia, bowling opener Shamima Sultana with a beauty of an inswinger reminiscent of her World Cup Final heroics at Lords in 2017.
Gordon then entered the fray immediately after the powerplay in the 7th over, and Bangladeshi opener Ayasha Rahman had little hesitation in getting after her, slogging her for a huge 6 over cow corner.
“It was actually a decent wicket,” Gordon said later. “There wasn’t much turn out there, so it was all about trying to hold a good length and get the batters to come at us a little bit.”
And come they did, giving Gordon her revenge on Ayasha, when the Bangladeshi top scorer tried a similar shot in the 13th over, this time falling short to be caught in the deep by Danni Wyatt to give Gordon her first international scalp.
Two further wickets followed for Gordon in her final over, thanks to catches from Heather Knight and fellow debutante Sophia Dunkley, as she finished with 3-16.
England’s third newbie, Linsey Smith, also chipped in with the wicket of Sanjida Islam, caught by Sophie Ecclestone, as Bangladesh lumbered to 76-9.
In reply, England found themselves in a spot of early trouble.
“The openers job is to go out and go hard,” said Gordon. “Sometimes it doesn’t pay!”
It certainly didn’t here, with Danni Wyatt given out LBW off the very first ball of the innings, wasting England’s review in the process, and fellow opener Tammy Beaumont soon following her back to the dugout, having skied a horribly mistimed drive off Salma Khatun to Fargana Hoque at backward point.
But Nat Sciver and Amy Jones steered England to within sight of their target at 51, before Sciver was stumped coming down the wicket for 23.
A brief rain delay saw England’s chase reduced to a Duckworth-Lewis adjusted 64, which Heather Knight took just 3 more balls to knock off, giving England their first win of the tournament, after sharing the points from their wash-out against Sri Lanka at the weekend.
England now meet South Africa here on Friday, in a crucial match which could determine semi-final qualification after South Africa disposed of Sri Lanka in their tournament opener later in the evening.
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