Tuesday, April 1st 2014 – Kingston, Jamaica: The Limacol Caribbean Premier League has today confirmed a stellar line-up of cricketers registered to take part in this year’s competition. Today’s announcement includes the six International Franchise Players (IFPs) chosen by the teams, and all of the players entering the 2014 Draft, which takes place this Thursday in Kingston, Jamaica.
The six IFPs will include three returning stars and three newcomers to the CPL. International cricket’s most successful bowler ever, Muttiah Muralitharan (Jamaica Tallawahs), CPL 2013’s leading run-scorer, Shoaib Malik (Barbados Tridents), and New Zealand’s Ross Taylor (Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel) will all return to their 2013 teams, while the top wicket-taker in T20 Internationals, Saeed Ajmal (Antigua Hawksbills), record-breaking New Zealander, Corey Anderson (Guyana Amazon Warriors) and Australian T20 specialist, Brad Hodge (St Lucia Zouks), will all make their CPL debuts.
West Indies scored 84 runs in their first 15 overs. They nearly doubled their total after that, smashing 82 off the last 30 balls of the innings. No Full Member team had ever conceded so many in the last five overs of a Twenty20 game.
It remained to be seen which part of West Indies' innings, the first three-quarters or the final quarter, would make a bigger impact on the result as Pakistan began their chase, in a knockout game to determine who would take on Sri Lanka in the first semi-final on Thursday. In the end, West Indies could have declared after 15 overs and still won.
Half-centuries from Mithali Raj and Poonam Raut gave India Women a consolation nine-wicket win over West Indies Women in Sylhet. A win would have meant West Indies finished top of the Group B table. Instead, they finished behind England by virtue of net run-rate, and will therefore face Group A toppers Australia in the first semifinal on Thursday.
Having chosen to bat first, West Indies lost Kycia Knight to the first ball of the match, lbw to Shubhlakshmi Sharma. Stafanie Taylor then steadied the innings in Deandra Dottin's company before she was out for 17 after a 61-run second-wicket partnership. Dottin was next to go, for a 51-ball 54, with West Indies' score 87 in the 15th over.
