Samara Ramnath shone with the bat and ball to lead TT to a six-wicket victory over Windward Islands when round three of the West Indies Rising Stars Women’s U19 T20 Championship continued at Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Tarouba, on July 9.
The off-spinner wreaked havoc with the ball and took a mesmerising three wickets for five runs from fours overs and was key to restricting the visitors to a paltry 60/9, batting first.
TT, defending champions, made light work of the target as opener Ramnath led the hosts to a victorious 61/4, with her top score of 28 not out.
When Windwards batted, they lost opener Cian Felix (five) and Jaeda Tyrell (golden duck) with 14 runs on the board. Natalia Phillip (19) and skipper Zaida James (17) added 17 runs to the total before the latter was bowled by a right-hand medium pacer Kenika Cassar, who was also instrumental with her haul of three wickets for 13 runs.
Phillip and James were their main contributors as the remaining batters fell for single-digit scores and Windwards stuttered to 60/9.
TT’s right-arm medium pacer Kirah Manpaul also snapped up two wickets for eight runs.
Kraigg Brathwaite says that West Indies' stunning victory over Australia in Brisbane is "history" as his team turns its attention to Wednesday's first Test against England at Lord's. However, he hopes that the confidence gleaned from that performance in January will help lift an inexperienced line-up as they prepare for another tough test of their mettle.
Going into the second Test of that Australia tour in January, West Indies were given next to no hope of competing at a venue where the hosts had lost just once in 34 Tests dating back to 1988, especially after an emphatic ten-wicket defeat in the series opener at Adelaide.
However, with battling half-centuries from Kavem Hodge, Joshua da Silva and Kevin Sinclair, allied to key second-innings runs from the likes of Alick Athanaze and Kirk McKenzie, the match was captured in extraordinary circumstances, as Shamar Joseph's second-innings figures of 7 for 68 in 11.5 overs blew away Australia's middle and lower order for a famous eight-run win.
Six months later, the challenge is no less stiff, as West Indies head to another country where they haven't landed a series win since their region's heyday in 1988. In their entire squad, only three players - Brathwaite himself, plus Jason Holder and Alzarri Joseph - have prior experience of playing at Lord's, but the captain believes from what he witnessed in Australia that his team can overcome the odds once again.
"It was a big positive for us to get a win, because it shows that we could we could get the job done," Brathwaite said. "Obviously the key for us as a group is to do it consistently.
The Barbados Royals have retained Hayley Matthews and Amanda-Jade Wellington ahead of the 2024 Massy Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL).
The Royals won the tournament last season and they are also bringing back Australia batter Laura Harris along with Chinelle Henry, Afy Fletcher, Aaliyah Alleyne and Qiana Joseph for their title defence.
The new members of the squad are Sri Lankan opener Chamari Athapaththu and Australian wicket-keeper Georgia Redmayne.
Hurricane Beryl has been wreaking havoc across the eastern Caribbean, with the storm hitting Tobago, Carriacou and St Vincent and the Grenadines early on July 1.
Trinidad also felt the adverse effects of the category four storm.
Both St Vincent and the Grenadines and TT are hosts of the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Rising Stars Men and Women’s Under-19 Championships carded to begin on July 2.
Newsday contacted CWI vice president Azim Bassarath for an update on the start of the tournament.
He said, “Nothing as yet. We don’t know what is the situation with flights coming out of the different islands after Beryl.”
Bassarath sent two pictures and four videos of the destruction caused by Beryl in neighbouring Caribbean islands.
The tournament he said has been virtually “put on hold."
Six players from the title-winning Indian squad have been named in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 team of the tournament. India finished the tournament unbeaten, winning a thrilling final against South Africa by seven runs at Kensington Oval, Barbados on Saturday.
Setting the tone at the top of the order, Rohit Sharma embraced India's new approach in T20Is and showed the way with his brilliant ball striking. Scoring at a rate of 156.7, the Indian skipper made 257 runs in the tournament, the second-most by any player. With three fifties in eight games, Rohit showed consistency as well while maintaining a brilliant strike-rate. His best came against Australia in the Super Eight, when he bludgeoned one of the best attacks in the tournament for 92 in just 41 balls. In the semi-final, he once again made an impact with a 57 off 39 balls. Rohit also led the side admirably as a leader, taking the side to a historic T20 World Cup title win after 17 years.
Alongside Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmanullah Gurbaz forged an impressive opening partnership, scoring 446 runs as a pair, including three century stands and was critical to Afghanistan's run to the semi-finals of the tournament. Gurbaz shone with exceptional knocks against Uganda (76), New Zealand (80), Australia (60) and Bangladesh (43). He finished as the leading run-scorer in the tournament and was Afghanistan's star with the bat at the top of the order.
Nicholas Pooran established his status as one of the best batters in the format with 228 runs in the tournament, scoring at a rate of 146.16. The next best West Indies batter made just 140 runs. Pooran finished as the sixth-highest run-getter despite his high-risk batting, and his knock of 98 against Afghanistan guided the team to an excellent win. It was also the highest score recorded by a player in the tournament.
