A calculated century by Stafanie Taylor laid the foundation for the West Indies Women to complete a series sweep against the Pakistan Women in the third ODI at the National Stadium in Karachi on Sunday. Taylor was essential in leading the West Indies out of a mini-crisis when they stuttered to 15/3 in the fifth over in their reply to Pakistan’s total.
Having won the toss for the first time in this series, West Indies put Pakistan to bat and saw Muneeba Ali and Ayesha Zafar put on a solid opening partnership of 49 runs, before pacer Aaliyah Alleyne dismissed Zafar for 13. Ali would go on to score her maiden half-century, but her dismissal by captain Taylor would see Pakistan lose three wickets in quick time.
Middle-order batters Iram Javed and Aliya Riaz staged somewhat of a recovery as they resisted the West Indian bowling attack with a 44-run partnership ensuring that Pakistan would bat their full 50 overs and eventually post 225. Shakera Selman and Aailyah Alleyne took two wickets apiece.
West Indies were rocked early as the top three batters–Deandra Dottin, Rashada Williams, and Shemaine Campbelle – were dismissed for single-digit scores, as the left-arm spin of Anam Amin once again asked questions of the West Indies.
However, Taylor and Player of the Series Hayley Matthews steadied the ship with the first of two essential partnerships. Taylor and Matthews put on 83 runs before Matthews would depart for 49. Jamaican Chedean Nation joined Taylor at the crease and shared in a fifth-wicket partnership of 128 runs to see the West Indies Women home in 44 overs.
Both women would end not out with Nation achieving her career-best score of 51 and Taylor registering her 7th ODI century off 102 balls.
Taylor adjudged Play of the Match, also became the third woman to score 5000 runs in One-Day Internationals.
Speaking after the series win Taylor said, “I think this is huge… seeing that we were coming off a (series) defeat to South Africa and to come here and win 3-0, we haven’t done that in a while and it’s really nice that we can do that and get ourselves match ready.”
On achieving the landmark of 5000 ODI runs, Taylor added, “I love scoring runs and I love batting, and once the team wins, I’m really happy about that. It’s never happened before… and I’m hoping I get a hundred against one of the (higher-ranked) teams. It’s really nice to reach such a milestone and I hope I continue to do that for West Indies.”
West Indies would be pleased with the whitewash as they prepare for the ICC World Cup qualifiers being held in Zimbabwe later this month.
MATCH SUMMARY
PAKISTAN WOMEN 225/7 (50 overs)
Muneeba Ali 58
Aliya Riaz 44*
Omaima Sohail 27
Shakera Selman 2/40
Aaliyah Alleyne 2/41
WEST INDIES 226/4 (44 overs)
Stafanie Taylor 102*
Chedean Nation 51*
Hayley Matthews 49
Anam Amin 2/45
Diana Baig 1/36
