A defiant 37th ODI fifty by captain Stafanie Taylor was the lone stand-out performance for the West Indies Women as Australia Women cruised to a 7 wicket win over the West Indies, handing them their second consecutive defeat at the ICC Women’s Cricket world Cup on Tuesday.
After a 30-minute delay to the start of the match due to early morning showers, West Indies won the toss and elected to bat. Karishma Ramharack made her World Cup debut in place of Anisa Mohammed in a tactical move and Deandra Dottin was declared fit to play after displaying some discomfort in the last game against India Women. Australia made changes as well, as Jess Jonassen and Annabel Sutherland came in for Amanda-Jade Wellington and Darcie Brown to better suit the conditions.
West Indies were off to a disastrous start as Ellyse Perry produced early swing and claimed 2 wickets in 2 balls in the second over of the match. Both Hayley Matthews and Kycia Knight fell victim to her for ducks as Matthews was bowled and Knight was caught behind first ball attempting to defend. Dottin and Taylor then attempted to negotiate some very tricky overs as Australia continued to extract swing early in the innings with both having LBW decisions against them overturned via the Decision Review System (DRS). The women put on 30 before Dottin was caught at first slip for a docile 16 runs off 36 balls with Perry again accounting for the wicket. Shemaine Campbelle joined her skipper at the crease and together they began to consolidate the innings once more with West Indies bringing up their first 50 runs in the 14th over. Thirty-six runs and twelve overs later Campbelle would depart for 20 after attempting to score a boundary but finding Beth Mooney at mid-wicket off the bowling of Ashleigh Gardener. Gardener accounted for Chedean Nation four balls later as she bowled the West Indian for another duck. At this point half of the team was down for 70 runs. Chinelle Henry then came to the crease and struck two quick fours but was out for 10 attempting an unlikely third run. Aaliyah Alleyne was the next batter in and together with the skipper, West Indies finally brought up their hundred at the end of the 34th over. The pair saw out 10 overs and put on 26 runs together, with Taylor smashing 2 boundaries straight back past the bowler. Alleyne was out shortly after, off a leading edge off pacer Megan Schutt for 10. Taylor got to her 50 in 89 balls but was adjudged LBW to Gardener just 2 balls after. Jess Jonassen then picked up the final two wickets to skittle the West Indies for 131 in 45.5 overs. Once again, the West Indies’ weaknesses of playing spin and rotating the strike were glaring.
When the Aussies began their reply, Hayley Matthews offered a glimmer of hope for the West Indies as she was instrumental in the dismissal of the in-form Alyssa Healy and captain Meg Lanning. Matthews took a superb return catch to dismiss Healy for 3 and then took a brilliant grab at first slip to dismiss Lanning for duck off the bowling of Shamilia Connell. Rachel Haynes and Ellyse Perry then put on a watchful partnership of 51 in which Haynes was the aggressor, but Matthews was sharp once again at first slip and held on to an edge off Chinelle Henry to dismiss Perry for 10 with the score at 58 for 3. Beth Mooney then joined Haynes at the crease and the pair put together the highest partnership of the match (74) to see Australia home. Haynes ended on an unbeaten 83, adding to her good run-scoring form for this tournament.
At the post-match presentation, Taylor stated that they did not assess the conditions well and had hoped that the batters would have stayed to build a big partnership with her. With 3 games to go, West Indies are not out of the running to make it to the final four and thus will look to be victorious in their next match against Bangladesh which bowls off in Thursday 17th March at 6 pm local time.
WEST INDIES-W 131 all out (45.5 overs)
Stafanie Taylor 50 (91)
Shemaine Campbelle 20 (51)
Ashleigh Gardner 3-25 (10 overs)
Ellyse Perry 3-22 (8 overs)
AUSTRALIA-W 132/3 (30.2 overs)
Rachael Haynes 83 (95)
Beth Mooney 28 (42)
Hayley Matthews 1-31 (8 overs)
Chinelle Henry 1-20 (5 overs)
Player of the Match: Ellyse Perry
