Barbados’ defence of the Cricket West Indies CG Insurance T-20 Blaze Championship has ended on a sad note for last year’s champs. The title now belongs to Jamaica who finished the tournament today with a superior net run rate and thus claimed the coveted trophy in what was a keenly contested battle.
The T-20 Blaze provided some exciting competition between the female teams representing the various franchises around the region over the last couple of days at the Providence Stadium in Guyana.
Today was the final day of competition and a win for defending champions Barbados would have ensured they retained the trophy having entered today’s final encounter leading the way with 16 points.
Instead, the Barbadian women lost their final match by 19 runs to Trinidad and Tobago while Jamaica won theirs and moved up to 16 points as well.
Defending champions Barbados remain huge favourites to lift the Cricket West Indies CG United Women’s T20 Blaze title yet again, defeating their biggest rivals Jamaica in fourth-round action on Monday morning at the National Stadium, Providence.
In a clash of two unbeaten teams, it was the Bajans who prevailed, winning by 24 runs.
Opener Hayley Matthews stroked a brilliant unbeaten half-century and then produced a miserly spell as Barbados won their fourth match on the trot.
Batting first, Barbados made 129-4, but that total could have been higher had the Jamaicans not pulled things back nicely in the second half of the innings.
THE three ODI games in the Pakistan series, played on June 8,10 and 12 at Multan, pretty well summed up the problems of West Indies cricket at the moment.
They could not come to terms with the opposition, led by Babar Azam, a super batsman.
It is deflating to all West Indian fans that WI were unable to pull off a win in even one game. It certainly tells a tale.
In the first, Nicholas Pooran, WI captain, won the toss and elected to bat. This decision revealed growing confidence in his team’s batting, by expecting them to establish a solid score, thus placing the Pakistani batsmen under some pressure.
In an ODI (50 overs), unless a pitch is judged to be bowler-friendly, then the right decision is to bat first. Batsmen are then supposed to take advantage of a good batting pitch to build a challenging score. The opposing batsmen then are forced to maintain a demanding scoring rate while chasing. A wicket or two falling at the right time for the bowling team could make this a daunting task for the batting side, because of the psychological impact it could cause.
The West Indies entered their three-match One-Day International series against Pakistan on a high after a 3-0 away series sweep of the Netherlands just a few days before.
What a difference a week makes as the regional side are now reeling from suffering their own 0-3 sweep at the hands of the Pakistanis after a 53-run loss in Sunday’s third ODI in Multan.
West Indies ODI and T20I captain Nicholas Pooran believes there are some positives his team can take from the series despite the result.
“One positive from this series is definitely character. The character shown by the players, especially coming out here in 45-degree temperature. A lot of guys got sick as well and we kept fighting,” Pooran said in an interview after the third game.
“We said at the start of this series that we’re going to stick together, no matter the result we’re going to stick together and that’s what happened,” he added.
Opener Jeremy Solozano fell short of triple figures, but captain Yannic Cariah and tail-ender Preston McSween added fifties of their own to thwart Bangladesh on the final day of the three-day tour match here yesterday.
Resuming on 83 with the CWI President’s XI on 201 for four, the left-handed Solozano perished for 92, after facing 218 deliveries in more than five hours and striking 11 fours.
Cariah, unbeaten overnight on 21, made 56 while McSween, a specialist left-arm swing bowler, entertained himself with a cavalier unbeaten 50 from 62 balls, which contained eight fours and a six.
Colin Archibald, batting at number eight, produced a dashing unbeaten 40 from 44 balls as the President’s XI piled up 359 for eight declared in reply to Bangladesh’s 310 for seven declared.
