Matthews leads the way as WI Women whip Sri Lanka

BRISTOL, England (CMC):

West Indies Women’s skipper Hayley Matthews turned in her best-ever bowling figures at a World Cup to set up her side’s comfortable five-wicket victory over Sri Lanka here yesterday and remain unbeaten at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.

Opening the bowling, Matthews grabbed three wickets in her first two overs and Sri Lanka never recovered to be eventually bowled out for 98 in 19.4 overs after being sent in to bat at County Ground.

The Windies weren’t the most clinical in their run chase but, aided by some shoddy fielding by their opponents, they romped to 99 for five with 23 balls remaining to register their third win in as many matches.

Matthews began her destructive spell of spin bowling in the first over of the match by stretching to hold on to a spectacular left-handed return catch to dismiss Vishmi Gunaratne with two runs on the board.

And, in her next over, she bowled Sri Lanka’s captain Chamari Athapaththu for two and had Harshitha Samarawickrama caught at point in the space of three deliveries to see them slump to nine for three.

Imesha Dulani scored three boundaries in her knock of 17, but perished after picking out Jannillea Glasgow at mid-on as she tried to hit pacer Chinelle Henry over the infield to make the score 23 for four in the sixth over.

Kavisha Dilhari and Nilakshika Silva briefly stemmed the flow of wickets during a 34-run partnership,but, once pacer Aaliyah Alleyne held on to a return catch to dismiss Dilhari for 21, normalcy returned as, two balls later, Kaushini Nuthyangana was trapped leg before wicket by Ashmini Munisar for a duck, as Sri Lanka slipped to 58 for six.

With the score 81 for six, Silva, who topscored with 30 off 26 balls, hit a delivery from Afy Fletcher straight down the throat of Deandra Dottin at deep backward square and Sri Lanka’s innings capitulated quickly thereafter, as they lost their last four wickets for 17 runs.

Player-of-the-Match Matthews finished with 3-15, while Karishma Ramharack took 2-15.

Faced with a straightforward run chase, Matthews and Dottin put on 28 runs in four overs before the former was run out for 17 by a direct hit from Silva at mid-on, attempting a run that was never on.

Dottin’s struggles with the bat at the World Cup continued when she was dismissed by Nimasha Meepage after scoring just 12 from 16 balls to make the score 36 for two.

Shemaine Campbelle was dropped by wicketkeeper Nimasha Meepage on a duck, but the missed chance didn’t prove costly, as she was dismissed for four by Athapaththu.

However, veteran Stafanie Taylor anchored the innings in an unbeaten knock of 27 off 25 balls and, despite losing the wickets of Jahzara Claxton for six and Henry for a duck to be 70 for five, the West Indies Women were never in serious danger of losing the contest.

Taylor found a reliable partner in Glasgow, with the two sharing an unbroken partnership of 29 to see their side over the line.

They will face fellow unbeaten side England in a top-of-the-table clash at Lord’s on Wednesday.