Vin­ode Mam­chan

"We are in it, to win it!" The words of West In­di­an Stephanie Tay­lor lead­ing in­to the match and the skip­per her­self turned in a fine all round per­for­mance to land the West In­dies women in­to the fi­nals of the ICC Women's World T20, at the ex­pense of New Zealand at the Wankhede Sta­di­um in Mum­bai yes­ter­day.

It is the first time the West In­dies Women have reached the fi­nal, hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly gone out at the se­mi-fi­nal stage of the last three T20 World Cups. The Caribbean girls made no mis­take this time around, rat­tling up a chal­leng­ing 143 for six off their 20 overs and then bowl­ing well to re­strict the Ki­wis to 137 for eight.

Tay­lor cracked an ag­gres­sive 25 and fol­lowed up with a dou­ble strike just when New Zealand were look­ing to run away with the game, to hand her side vic­to­ry by six runs and a place in the fi­nals for the first time in four at­tempts at the se­mi-fi­nals. In the end she fin­ished with three for 26.

Play­er of the match Brit­ney Coop­er was bril­liant on the day, scor­ing an ex­cel­lent 61 and while she bat­ted, the West In­dies looked as if they would get be­yond the 150-run mark but the Ki­wis came back at the fall of her wick­et. Coop­er's 61 came of 48 balls with five fours and two six­es.

Al­so among the runs were De­an­dra Dot­tin 25, Hay­ley Matthews 16 and Meris­sa Aguilleira 15 not out of 10 balls. Left to chase 144 runs at a run rate of 7.2, the Ki­wis slipped to 49 for three.

How­ev­er Sara Mc­Glashan and Amy Sat­terth­waite added 59 runs for the fourth wick­et and New Zealand seemed on course for vic­to­ry. Tay­lor took mat­ters in­to her own hands and dis­missed both of them of suc­ces­sive de­liv­er­ies to turn the match the West In­dies way.

Mc­Gal­shan, the big hit­ter was the main threat for the West In­dies, and when she went the game was as good as over.She count­ed 38 of 30 balls with two fours, while Sat­terth­waite made 24 of 29 balls with a soli­tary four. The West In­dies will now move on to Kolkata where they meet Aus­tralia in the fi­nals on Sun­day.

Speak­ing af­ter the match, Tay­lor said the West In­dies men's team were be­hind them all the way. "When I got up in the morn­ing, the West In­dies cap­tain Dar­ren Sam­my called me to wish me all the best and told me that the boys were right be­hind us. We have won and now we will stay at the ground to sup­port them. I al­so got a lot of text mes­sages from the oth­er West In­dies play­ers and ba­si­cal­ly they were telling me that I had to bat long for us to win.

Score­board

WI vs NZ

WI inns

H Matthews lbw Nielsen 16

S Tay­lor c Perkins b Devine 25

B Coop­er c Priest b Devine 61

D Dot­tin b Devine 20

S King c Sat­terth­waite b Devine 4

M Aguilleira not out 15

S Camp­belle run out 0

Ex­tras w2 2

To­tal for 6 wk­ts 143

Fall of wk­ts: 18, 78, 122, 125, 140, 143.

Bowl­ing: M Niel­son 4-0-14-1, L Tahuhu 2-0-21-0, M Kasperek 3-0-30-0, E Berming­ham 3-0-24-0, S Bates 2-0-21-0, A Sat­terth­waite 2-0-11-0.

NZ inns

S Bates c Quin­tyne b Fletch­er 12

R Priest b Con­nell 6

S Devine run out 22

S Mc­Glashan c Cam­belle b Tay­lor 38

A Sat­terth­waite c Camp­belle b Tay­lor 24

K Mar­tin not out 11

K Perkins c Dot­tin b Quin­tyne 2

L Kasperek st Ageillera b Tay­lor 6

E Berming­ham run out 8

Ex­tras 1lb, 6w, 1nb 8

To­tal for 8 wk­ts (20ovs) 137

Fall of wk­ts: 11, 42, 49,108, 108, 116, 125, 137.

Bowl­ing: S Con­nell 3-0-22-1, D Dot­tin 4-0-29-0, H Matthews 2-018-0, A Fletch­er 4-0-20-1, A Mo­hammed 1-0-10-0, S Tay­lor 4-0-26-3, S Quin­tyne 2-0-11-1.

Re­sult:

West In­dies won by 6 runs.

Play­er of the match: Brit­ney Coop­er.