KINGSTOWN – Bar­ba­dos Women will con­sid­er them­selves lucky to have got­ten past Wind­ward Is­lands Women by three wick­ets af­ter pro­duc­ing a shod­dy per­for­mance with the bat in the T20 Blaze in St Vin­cent on Sat­ur­day.

Led by Shamil­ia Con­nell’s im­pres­sive four-wick­et haul, Bar­ba­dos did well to lim­it the Wind­wards to 86 for eight in their 20 overs af­ter they chose to bat first at the Arnos Vale Play­ing Field.

Aid­ed by 24 ex­tras from their op­po­nents, Bar­ba­dos then limped to 87 for sev­en in 16.1 overs, to reg­is­ter their third suc­ces­sive win and join Lee­ward Is­lands Women as the on­ly oth­er un­beat­en side in the com­pe­ti­tion.

Mean­while, it was a third straight loss for the bot­tom placed Wind­wards with just two more rounds of match­es re­main­ing.

The Wind­wards nev­er re­cov­ered af­ter los­ing Ear­nisha Fontaine by the run out route for just two runs, Ner­is­sa Crafton for six and Jan­nil­lea Glas­gow for eight, to find them­selves 32 for three af­ter eight overs.

Afy Fletch­er and Care­na Noel tried their best to re­vive the in­nings in a 37-run part­ner­ship for the fourth wick­et, but they did so at a pedes­tri­an rate of five runs an over.

Con­nell and Shani­ka Bruce then claimed the re­main­ing five wick­ets to fall for the ad­di­tion of just 17 runs, as the Wind­wards col­lapsed from 69 for three to 81 for eight.

Fletch­er was caught be­hind off the bowl­ing of Bruce for 35 off 32 balls and Noel was bowled by Con­nell for 16 to end their re­sis­tance.

Con­nell was the main de­stroy­er, claim­ing 4-8 from her four overs, while Bruce sup­port­ed with 2-18.

Bar­ba­dos al­so en­dured a rocky start, los­ing open­ers Tr­is­han Hold­er and Eboni Brath­waite with on­ly 19 runs on the board.

Nai­jan­ni Cum­ber­batch and Asabi Cal­len­der then added 30 runs for the third wick­et, be­fore Aldith Gasper dis­missed Cum­ber­batch for the top score of 15, and Abi­ni St Jean ac­count­ed for the wick­ets of Cal­len­der for 15 and cap­tain Aaliyah Al­leyne to leave Bar­ba­dos 56 for five.

The Wind­ward Is­lands did them­selves no favours by send­ing down 21 wides, gift­ing their op­po­nent in­valu­able runs.

When Bar­ba­dos lost Shak­era Sel­man for nine and Con­nell for one, they were in a spot of both­er at 75 for sev­en, still need­ing 12 more runs for vic­to­ry.

But Al­li­son Gor­don held her nerve in an un­beat­en knock of 12 to see Bar­ba­dos past the fin­ish line.

Fletch­er led the bowl­ing at­tack for the Wind­wards with 2-14, while Gasper and St Jean both took 2-17.

CMC

Sum­marised scores

WIND­WARD IS­LANDS WOMEN 86-8 in 20 overs (Afy Fletch­er 35, Care­na Noel 16; Shamil­ia Con­nell 4-8, Shani­ka Bruce 2-18) vs BAR­BA­DOS WOMEN 87-7 in 16.1 overs (Nai­jan­ni Cum­ber­batch 15, Al­li­son Gor­don 12 not out; Afy Fletch­er 2-14, Aldith Gasper 2-17, Abi­ni St Jean 2-17). Bar­ba­dos won by three wick­ets.