MUM­BAI–Pro­lif­ic open­er Stafanie Tay­lor ham­mered a ca­reer-best cen­tu­ry as West In­dies Women re­bound­ed from an open­ing game de­feat to crush Sri Lan­ka Women by 209 runs in their sec­ond match of the ICC Women's World Cup here yes­ter­day. The el­e­gant right-han­der un­veiled a mag­nif­i­cent 171 to pro­pel West In­dies to 368 for eight off their 50 overs, the side's high­est ever to­tal in a one-day in­ter­na­tion­al. Big-hit­ter De­an­dra Dot­tin chipped in with a typ­i­cal­ly ag­gres­sive even fifty, cap­tain Meris­sa Aguilleira gath­ered a brisk un­beat­en 47 while Kyshona Knight scored a pa­tient 44.

In re­ply, Sri Lan­ka lost ear­ly wick­ets to plum­met to 159 all out off 40 overs, with Deepi­ka Rasangi­ka top scor­ing with 28. Teenaged leg-spin­ner Shaqua­na Quin­tyne was the Windies' best bowler with three for 32 while lef­t­arm spin­ner Shanel Da­ley struck two key blows ear­ly in the in­nings to fin­ish with two for 35. The vic­to­ry was a cru­cial one for West In­dies es­pe­cial­ly af­ter they lost their open­ing con­test to hosts In­dia last Thurs­day, and it cat­a­pult­ed them to the top of Group A cour­tesy of net run rate.

All four teams have two points af­ter two match­es. Sent in at the Mid­dle In­come Group Ground, the Windies lass­es ben­e­fit­ted from sev­er­al su­perb part­ner­ships, all ex­pert­ly an­chored by the bril­liant Tay­lor. She put on 62 off 58 balls for the first wick­et with Ky­cia Knight (30) be­fore adding a fur­ther 110 for the third wick­et with Kyshona Knight. The in­nings was then car­ried in­to over­drive thanks to a rol­lick­ing 90- run fourth wick­et stand 39 balls with Dot­tin, and this was sus­tained when Tay­lor com­bined with Aguilleira in a 34-ball, sev­enth wick­et part­ner­ship of 55.

Over­all, Tay­lor faced 137 balls and count­ed 18 fours and two six­es, sur­pass­ing her pre­vi­ous best of 147 against the Nether­lands at Potchef­stroom in South Africa three years ago. The knock is the high­est score by a West In­dies bats­man in women's crick­et. She made a slow start to her in­nings as Ky­cia Knight took the ear­ly ini­tia­tive, stroking four bound­aries in her 29-ball knock as West In­dies raced to 40 off the first six overs.

Ky­cia was dom­i­nat­ing when she was stumped in the tenth over off cap­tain and leg-spin­ner Shashikala Siri­war­dene and when She­maine Camp­belle (6) per­ished cheap­ly 17 balls lat­er via the run out route, Sri Lan­ka were back in the game. How­ev­er, Kyshona Knight ar­rived to help con­sol­i­date the in­nings, spend­ing 67 balls at the crease and count­ing just two fours in a part­ner­ship that snatched the ad­van­tage away from the Sri Lankans and laid the foun­da­tion for the dom­i­na­tion that was to come.

The stand was end­ed when Kyshona was run out by Deepi­ka Ranasangi­ka's di­rect hit in the 34th over but Dot­tin joined Tay­lor to de­stroy Sri Lan­ka's bowl­ing. Dot­tin cleared the ropes at long on with seam­er Es­hani Kaushalya off the first ball she faced in an over that cost 16 runs and over­all, clob­bered five fours and four six­es off a mere 22 balls.

SCORE­BOARD

Sri Lan­ka vs West In­dies

WEST IN­DIES WOMEN

Ky­cia Knight st Surangi­ka b Siri­war­dene........ 30

S Tay­lor c At­a­p­at­tu b Senevi­rat­na.......... 171

S Camp­belle run out ...................................................6

Kyshona Knight run out .......................................44

D Dot­tin b Raviku­mar ............................................50

J Nero lbw b Siri­war­dene .......................................2

S Da­ley c Rasangi­ka b Raviku­mar................ 0

M Aguilleira not out .................................................47

S Quin­tyne lbw b Senevi­rat­na ..........................5

A Mo­hammed not out ..............................................3

Ex­tras (b2, w7, lb1) ...................................................10

TO­TAL (8 wk­ts, 50 overs) .............................368

Fall of wick­ets: 1-62 (Knight, 9.4 overs), 2-

74 (Camp­belle, 12.3), 3-184 (Knight, 33.1), 4-

274 (Dot­tin, 39.4), 5-281 (Nero, 40.5), 6-286

(Da­ley, 41.3), 7-341 (Tay­lor, 47.1), 8-365

(Quin­tyne, 49.5)

Bowl­ing: Kaushalya 7-0-63-0 (w1),

Weer­akkody 6-0-52-2 (w1), Senevi­rat­na 8-

0-72-2 (w3), Siri­war­dene 10-0-58-2,

Raviku­mar 10-0-69-2, Dolawat­te 9-0-51-0.

SRI LAN­KA WOMEN

C At­a­p­at­tu c Quin­tyne b Sel­man .......................7

Y Mendis c Nero b Da­ley ..........................................17

P Weer­akkody c Nero b Quin­tyne ..................22

S Siri­war­dene c Mo­hammed b Da­ley .........10

S Dolawat­te c Sel­man b Mo­hammed ........10

D Surangi­ka run out...................................................... 17

E Kaushalya c Da­ley b Quin­tyne .........................6

D Rasangi­ka c Camp­belle b Quin­tyne ........28

S Weer­akkody not out.................................................14

C Senevi­rat­na c Da­ley b Tay­lor .............................0

S Raviku­mar b Kyshona Knight........................... 2

Ex­tras (w25, nb1) ..........................................................26

TO­TAL (all out, 40 overs) ....................................159

Fall of wick­ets: 1-21 (At­a­p­at­tu, 4.1 overs),

2-29 (Mendis, 5.2), 3-51 (Siri­war­dene, 11.3),

4-75 (Dolawat­te, 17), 5-81 (Weer­akkody,

19.1), 6-89 (Kaushalya, 21.3), 7-126

(Rasangi­ka, 29.5), 8-155 (Man­odara, 37.5),

9-155 (Senevi­rat­na, 38.3), 10-159

(Raviku­mar, 40)

Bowl­ing: Sel­man 5-0-35-1 (w4, nb1), Da­ley

9-0-35-2 (w5), Mo­hammed 5.2-1-10-1,

Dot­tin 2-0-11-0 (w6), Quin­tyne 9-0-32-3

(w2), Ky­cia Knight 0.4-0-6-0, Camp­belle 3-

0-17-0 (w3), Tay­lor 4-0-10-1 (w1), Kyshona

Knight 2-0-3-1 (w1).

Re­sult: West In­dies Women won by 209

runs.

Points: West In­dies Women 2, Sri Lan­ka

Woman 0.

Play­er-of-the-Match: Stafanie Tay­lor.

Toss: Sri Lan­ka Women.

Um­pires: Vi­neet Kulka­rni, Bud­dhi Prad­han;

TV � Mark Hawthorne