“I’ve been a bit nervous all day,” said Nat Sciver-Brunt after tossing the coin for Hayley Matthews to call. First job, tick – toss the coin properly, don’t let it fall off your thumb or fall flat on the grass with no elevation in front of the TV cameras.
That might have been the easiest one of Sciver-Brunt’s extended responsibilities. As a senior player often turned to for advice or even to lead in times of crisis, there was always the safety blanket of someone higher, someone to pass the responsibility or duty on to. In the past, that blanket has seemed to weigh down, the most crushing example being in England’s T20 World Cup exit. Then, with Heather Knight off the field injured, Sciver-Brunt was powerless to prevent a cataclysmic, panic-ridden bowling and fielding display that saw West Indies chase down 142 with ease. With the team now her own, the hope is that she can exert more influence, and grow into the role rather than have it thrust upon her. Here was when the theory would be put to the test.
And there was a lot resting on the success of that theory. Throwing off the gloominess of seven consecutive defeats in the Ashes, getting the fans back onside, ushering in her reign with positivity and translating that freshness injected by Edwards’ no-frills or nonsense touch, onto the pitch.
Part of how Sciver-Brunt handled that translation could be seen in how she dealt with both Em Arlott and Issy Wong. Both have had non-linear journeys with England over the last few years, and both had a lot resting on how they went at Canterbury. For Arlott, finally getting an England cap when she’d almost lost hope, coming on to bowl would have been an anxious moment. Before she bowled her first ball, Sciver-Brunt had a long conversation with her, resetting the field more than once to make sure Arlott was happy. She then parked herself firmly at a tight mid-on, and walked over to her after almost every ball sent down, tweaking the field until Arlott was comfortable to go again.
Wong’s introduction was handled similarly, but with some stylistic differences. Wong played a T20I as recently as last year, but hasn’t been in a full strength England team for almost two years. The last time she was, the problems she was having with her action and run-up played out very publicly, in a two-over spell that must have done serious damage to her confidence. Before Wong bowled her first ball, there was a laugh and a joke, followed by slightly less intense conversation throughout the over. When the ball was plugged back to Sciver-Brunt at mid-on, she took advantage of Realaanna Grimmond’s momentary loss of concentration to throw the ball for Amy Jones to take off the bails at the striker’s end, the 20-year-old debutant having wandered out of her crease.
That indicates the different struggles the two captains on the field were facing. Sciver-Brunt’s job is like running a finishing school, easing already capable and largely experienced players into international cricket. There are other demands, but still, the difference between the role she has to play and the one Matthews’ does, are incomparable.
In charge of a side shorn of its two most impactful players, which has just failed to qualify for the 50-over World Cup they reached the semi-finals of three years ago, the barriers facing her own mission to restore positivity are much higher. Perhaps that makes it all the more incredible that she’s still able to perform to the freakish levels she did in Canterbury. On the way to her third T20I century, Matthews saw seven wickets fall at the other end, with no batter departing for more than 17. While she scrambled a single off the final ball of the innings to finish on exactly 100, the total runs scored off the bat by the rest of her teammates equalled 40.
A superb third T20I century from Hayley Matthews in Canterbury - the next highest score in West Indies' innings was 17.#ENGvWI pic.twitter.com/BQWz7FhzEP
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) May 21, 2025
Lone wolf performances like that are Matthews’ day-to-day job, not a rescue attempt for the history books as they should be. Only 18 months ago, she played a statistically almost identical innings, falling one run short of a century in a team score of 147 against Australia. While the chasm in performance between her and her teammates means her brilliance is constantly highlighted, at what point does it become diminished? She won’t get an opportunity to showcase her talent at this year’s World Cup, and the more frequent those rescue efforts become the more the novelty wears off, and the more the focus falls on those who fail around her.
At 27, having captained her country for three years, Matthews cuts an increasingly jaded figure, fielding questions over the inexperience of her side and her own exceptionalism that she’s tried to answer 100 times. There’s weariness that should be beyond her years, brought on by the hopelessness that any success like they had against England at last year’s T20 World Cup can be anything but fleeting. Achieving the kind of change England have in under a month of new leadership feels impossible.
Regardless of that disparity, Sciver-Brunt’s day wasn’t all storybook success. She fell for a duck after getting a faint underedge on her second ball at the crease. With Arlott slated to come in at seven and the middle-order collapses England have been prone to still a lingering possibility, not all demons can be vanquished in a night. Sophia Dunkley went some way to conquering hers, however, guiding the chase home with ease in the kind of innings England were screaming out for over the winter. Nevertheless, there will be far tougher tests than a depleted West Indies in the kind of bilateral series England dominated even under the old regime.
But, Edwards’ summary of the core requirement of her job when she took over was correct. It’s about winning. The rest is fine print, and the real story is in the headline. England’s bold new era got off to a winning start.
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