BAS­SETERRE – A run-a-ball 49 from Ky­cia Knight topped a run-a-ball, even half-cen­tu­ry from Qiana Joseph, and re­cent­ly-mint­ed Su­per50 cham­pi­ons Bar­ba­dos clinched a four-wick­et win against lead­ers Wind­ward Is­lands off the last ball in the West In­dies Women’s Twen­ty20 Blaze on Thurs­day in St Kitts, rais­ing their hopes of dou­ble ti­tle suc­cess.

Knight struck five fours from 49 balls, and the Bar­ba­di­ans de­fied a brief stop­page for rain in the clos­ing stages, and two run outs in the fi­nal over to suc­cess­ful­ly chase 129 in the fi­nal match of the fourth round triple-head­er un­der the lights at Warn­er Park.

The long-serv­ing left-hand­ed open­er shared a cru­cial sec­ond wick­et stand of 66 with Un­der-19 in­ter­na­tion­al Nai­jan­ni Cum­ber­batch that was the rock up­on which Bar­ba­dos built their as­sault on the high­est tar­get in this year’s tour­na­ment.

Cum­ber­batch made 22, but she and Knight fell with vic­to­ry in sight be­fore left-han­der Kyshona Knight, Ky­cia’s twin sis­ter, guid­ed the Bar­ba­di­ans to the promised land, for­mal­is­ing the re­sult when she pulled Joseph, bowl­ing her left-arm spin, through mid-wick­et for a sin­gle to seal the deal.

The re­sult gave Bar­ba­dos their third win of the tour­na­ment, mov­ing them to 12 points at the top of the stand­ings with Guyana, win­ners over last year’s cham­pi­ons Ja­maica in the first match of the day; Wind­wards re­mained on eight points from two wins in four match­es.

In the fifth and fi­nal round on Sat­ur­day, Bar­ba­dos play hosts Lee­ward Is­lands at Warn­er Park, T&T face Guyana at St Paul’s Sports Com­plex, and Ja­maica meet Wind­wards at Cona­ree Crick­et Ground.

The Bar­ba­di­ans were set back when open­er Aaliyah Al­leyne was lbw to Joseph for nine in the fourth over, but they reached 35 for one at the close of the Pow­er Play.

Ky­cia and Cum­ber­batch car­ried on mer­ri­ly and scored at six runs an over to set Bar­ba­dos on course be­fore Zai­da James re­moved both of them in the 16th over on the cusp of rain forc­ing the um­pires to stop play for about 15 min­utes.

Knight was lbw to the first ball of the over, and with the driz­zles get­ting heav­ier, Cum­ber­batch gave a tame re­turn catch off the last ball, and the weath­er in­ter­rupt­ed with Bar­ba­dos need­ing 28 from the last four overs.

They got sev­en in the first over af­ter the re­sump­tion from Joseph; nine in the sec­ond over from James, in­clud­ing a bound­ary for Kyshona; and six in the penul­ti­mate over from Afy Fletch­er that in­clud­ed their cap­tain Shak­era Sel­man be­ing stumped for eight and a bound­ary for Shamil­ia Con­nell.

This meant six were need­ed from the fi­nal over, and though Con­nell and Tr­is­han Hold­er were need­less­ly run out off the sec­ond and penul­ti­mate de­liv­er­ies, Kyshona drew on her ex­pe­ri­ence and ush­ered the Bar­ba­di­ans over the fin­ish line.

Ear­li­er, Joseph cracked six fours and one six in 50 off 50 balls and an­chored the Wind­wards to the high­est to­tal of the tour­na­ment this year of 128 for eight from their 20 overs af­ter they were put in to bat.

Bat­ting at five, Joseph res­cued her side af­ter they wob­bled to 33 for three at the close of the Pow­er Play, and she shared two valu­able part­ner­ships of 36 with Pearl Eti­enne for the fourth wick­et and 45 with Ma­li­ka Ed­ward for the fifth wick­et be­fore falling with two balls re­main­ing in the in­nings.

Ed­ward made 20, but no oth­er Wind­wards bats­man reached that score, and they en­dured a fur­ther set­back when Eti­enne re­tired hurt on 17 with a leg in­jury when they were 66 for three in the 13th over.

Con­nell, the West In­dies Women’s pac­er, was the pick of the Bar­ba­dos bowlers with three for 16 from her al­lot­ted four overs, and new-ball part­ner Al­li­son Gor­don took two for 20 from her four overs.

In the open­ing match of the day, a run-a-ball, even, un­beat­en 50 from West In­dies Women’s bats­man She­maine Camp­belle an­chored the Guyanese to an eight-wick­et win against the Ja­maicans.

Camp­belle struck five fours from 49 balls and shared an un­bro­ken third wick­et stand of ex­act­ly 100 with in­ter­na­tion­al team­mate Shak­ibi Gan­jn­abi, and Guyana suc­cess­ful­ly chased 110.

For­mer West In­dies Women’s cap­tain Stafanie Tay­lor led the way again for Ja­maica with 48 off 49 balls that in­clud­ed five fours and one six, but they could on­ly muster 109 for six from their al­lo­ca­tion of 20 overs af­ter they won the toss and chose to bat.

In­ter­na­tion­al pac­er Cher­ry-Ann Fras­er was the pick of the Guyanese bowlers with three for 18 from three overs.

Then, steady bat­ting, an­chored by the in­ter­na­tion­al trio of Shunelle Sawh, Brit­ney Coop­er, and Shali­ni Sama­roo, pro­pelled T&T to a six-wick­et win against Lee­wards.

Sawh, the West In­dies Un­der-19 Women’s wick­et­keep­er-bats­man, led the way with 26, se­nior in­ter­na­tion­al Coop­er made 21 not out, and Sama­roo, an­oth­er Un­der-19 in­ter­na­tion­al, got 20, and T&T chased down 121 in the sec­ond match of the triple-head­er.

Pac­er Kir­by­i­na Alexan­der and long-serv­ing in­ter­na­tion­al off-spin­ner Anisa Mo­hammed bagged two wick­ets apiece, and T&T re­strict­ed Lee­wards to 120 for five from their 20 overs af­ter the home team were put in to bat.

Di­vya Sax­e­na led the way for the hosts with 37, Jahzara Clax­ton got 36, and Aman­da Ed­wards added 26 in the strongest bat­ting per­for­mance in the tour­na­ment from the Lee­wards.

CMC

BRIEF SCORES:

WIND­WARD IS­LANDS 128 for eight off 20 overs (Qiana Joseph 50, Ma­li­ka Ed­wards 20; Shamil­ia Con­nell 3-16, Al­li­son Gor­don 2-20) vs BAR­BA­DOS 129 for six off 20 overs (Ky­cia Knight 49, Nai­jan­ni Cum­ber­batch 22; Zai­da James 2-27). Bar­ba­dos beat Wind­ward Is­lands by four wick­ets

LEE­WARD IS­LANDS 120 for five off 20 overs (Di­vya Sax­e­na 37, Jahzara Clax­ton 36, Aman­da Ed­wards 26; Kir­by­i­na Alexan­der 2-15, Anisa Mo­hammed 2-21) vs T&T 121 for four off 17.4 overs (Shunelle Sawh 26, Brit­ney Coop­er 21 not out, Shali­ni Sama­roo 20). T&T won by six wick­ets.

JA­MAICA 109 for six off 20 overs (Stafanie Tay­lor 48, Natasha McLean 27, Ke­neshia Fer­ron 20; Cher­ry-Ann Fras­er 3-18) vs GUYANA 110 for two off 20 overs (She­maine Camp­belle 50 not out, Shak­i­ba Gajn­abi 37 not out; Celi­na Whyte 2-11). Guyana won by eight wick­ets.