ICC Women’s T20 World Cup
Match 2 – v India Women
Venue: Newlands, Cape Town; South Africa
Toss: West Indies
Result: India won by 6 wickets
Scorecard: https://bit.ly/t20wcindwvwiw
West Indies Women suffered their second defeat in the tournament, as they fell to India. the result meant they slipped to fourth position in the five-team group. They will need to win their upcoming matches against Ireland Women and Pakistan Women to have a chance of making the semi-finals.
West Indies were made to work hard when they batted first and ended on 118-6 from their 20 overs. It was not enough to challenge India as they reached 119-4 off 18.1 overs to complete victory with 11 balls to spare.
Stafanie Taylor top-scored with 42 at the top of the order and vice-captain Shemaine Campbelle chipped in with 30 but West Indies faltered after being well placed at 77-1 one in the 14th over.
West Indies lost their captain Hayley Matthews for two with four on the board at the start of the second over, edging a backfoot drive through to Ghosh.
Taylor came together with Campbelle to stabilise the innings in a stand of 73 for the second wicket.
Taylor struck six fours off 40 balls and Campbelle also batted slowly despite counting three fours, her innings needing 36 deliveries.
Both fell four balls apart with a run added in the 14th over from Player-of-the-Match, off-spinner Deepti Sharma (3-15), Campbelle taken at short third man on the reverse sweep and Taylor adjudged leg-before-wicket on review.
“Obviously we didn’t get as much runs as we were looking for,” Campbelle said after the match. “We tried to get at least 150. I think 150 would’ve been a good fighting total for us today. One of our top three have got to bat through to the end to finish it off … if one of the top three bat through to the end I think we will get the runs we’re looking for.”
In reply, West Indies bowled well to have India at 43-3 at the start of the eighth over after off-spinner Karishma Ramharack (2-14) removed both openers Shafali Verma (28) and Smriti Mandhana (10).However, wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh struck an unbeaten 44 off 32 balls while captain Harmanpreet Kaur made 33 from 42 balls, adding a 72-run, fourth wicket stand to erase any chance of a West Indies comeback.
Verma provided the early impetus for India by punching five fours in a 23-ball cameo, posting 32 for the first wicket with Smriti Mandhana (10).
Once Ramharack drew Mandhana down and had her stumped in the fourth over, India lost three wickets for 11 runs off 22 balls before Ghosh and Harmanpreet led the recovery. West Indies suffered a setback when Taylor went down with an injury and had to be stretchered off the field. She will continue to be monitored and receive treatment from the medical staff.
The West Indies next match is against Ireland on Friday 17 February at Newlands. First ball is at 3pm local time (9am Eastern Caribbean/8am Jamaica Time).
