Friday 8 December 2017 18:26, UK
With the series poised at 1-1, Georgia Elwiss blogs ahead of England Women's crunch Championship ODIs in West Indies...
Wagwan from Jamaica!
After Hurricane Matthew fortunately passed the island without too great an impact, we got our training underway at the amazing Trelawny Stadium in Montego Bay. It's a wonderful facility which was purpose built for the 2007 ICC World T20 and it's a pretty imposing place with large stands looking over the ground and with beautiful views over the sea. Unfortunately the close proximity to the ocean didn't quite register with one of the girls (I can't say who, she'll kill me!), and after one particularly tough session, she wistfully asked if we were at altitude… FINE!
Dishing out team fines is something we enjoy doing throughout the duration of tour - basically a 'fines master' is appointed, and they are then responsible for collating an ongoing list of embarrassing moments or daft comments for each player and member of our support staff. On the last night of tour we gather as a big group to go through them all. It helps to keep things light-hearted and maybe stop people being stupid - even the management!
In good spirits and ready to go, we played a warm-up game against a Jamaica women's representative XI ahead of our first ODI, which featured some excellent contributions from Amy Jones and Danni Wyatt.
Our preparation block at the National Cricket Performance Centre leading into this tour has so far proven to be spot on. All the talk back in Loughborough was about being able to play on slow, low, turning pitches and making game plans to enable us to negate the threat of spinners and how to score runs with low risk options. So far, the pitches we have played on for first two ODIs were exactly that although with 9.30am starts out here, there was a little more help for the seam bowlers early in the morning.
The first ODI was perhaps one of the best games of cricket I have ever been involved in. The game ebbed and flowed, momentum shifted in the space of a few balls and true to the universal law of low-scoring games there was an exciting finish - with an exceptional spell of bowling from Katherine Brunt to give us the victory.
Unfortunately, it wasn't to be in our second ODI where in another low scoring game we fancied ourselves to chase 149, especially when we were so well positioned at 90-3. However, as in the first clash, momentum changed very quickly and after a devastating spell of bowling from Deandra Dottin we found ourselves all out for 110.
The local support from hotel staff and English tourists has been fantastic. We managed to nearly fill one of the large stands for the first ODI with England fans (staying in the same hotel as us for a big family wedding!) who wholeheartedly took on the vuvuzelas of the West Indian fans and created one of the best atmospheres for us to play in front of. Although there were probably only 300 people in the ground it felt like 3,000!
Back at the hotel the staff have been fantastic, always so friendly even though they were supporting the West Indians. Although I'm pretty sure for the first few days they were trying to slip some rum in our banana smoothies to throw us off our game!
We have been caught in a few tropical storms over here resulting in some proper rain! I have been rooming with Jenny Gunn who is normally petrified of storms but I ran back to the room to check on her and she was playing photographer extraordinaire out on the balcony lapping up the slow-mo feature on her phone and filming crazy videos! She said the heat must have been getting to her!
We are off to Kingston now for the remainder of our series and for the three ODIs which also carry ICC Women's Championship points - the qualification competition for the ICC Women's World Cup in England next year. We will be looking to right the wrongs from the last ODI and put in some good performances at the iconic Sabina Park.
For the first time in over 20 years, the ICC Women's World Cup is coming to England and here's your chance to see the final at Lord's... Ensure you're at the competition's showpiece final on Sunday, July 23, 2017, with priority access to purchasing tickets. Click here for Sky customer pre-sale tickets for the Lord's final.
For further 2017 Women's World Cup tournament information, click here.
