PROV­I­DENCE – Chamari Atha­p­aththu and Court­ney Webb scored im­pres­sive half-cen­turies and the Bar­ba­dos Roy­als Women pre­pared for Wednes­day’s Women Caribbean Pre­mier League fi­nals with a con­vinc­ing sev­en-wick­et win over the Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers Women in Guyana Tues­day.

Hav­ing al­ready been elim­i­nat­ed af­ter los­ing all three of their pre­vi­ous match­es, the Knight Rid­ers pro­duced their best bat­ting dis­play of the tour­na­ment in post­ing 148 for eight in their 20 overs at Prov­i­dence Sta­di­um, thanks to Jess Jonassen’s knock of 71.

How­ev­er, Play­er-of-the-Match Atha­p­aththu hit 89 from 71 balls, while Webb cracked an un­beat­en 50 off 42 balls to steer the de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons to 149 for three with five balls re­main­ing in the con­test.

With the win, the Roy­als head in­to the fi­nal un­beat­en af­ter win­ning all four of their pre­lim­i­nary match­es, while the Knight Rid­ers end­ed win­less in their four games.

Af­ter choos­ing to bat, the Knight Rid­ers lost the cru­cial wick­et of their cap­tain De­an­dra Dot­tin, who was bowled for a duck by Chinelle Hen­ry in the first over and Jan­nil­lea Glas­gow made just two be­fore she was back in the pavil­ion to leave them 22 for two.

Jonassen then added 44 runs with Zai­da James and 39 with Shikha Pandey to re­build the in­nings, be­fore she be­came Hen­ry’s sec­ond wick­et af­ter fac­ing 52 balls and strik­ing nine fours and one six, with the score 105 for four at the start of the 16th over.

Pandey, who scored 24 off 21 balls and Jahzara Clax­ton, who made 15, then bat­ted re­spon­si­bly to help get their side up to a com­pet­i­tive to­tal.

For the Roy­als, Hen­ry took 3-25 and Shamil­ia Con­nell 2-33.

Af­ter slump­ing to three for two in the first over in their run chase, the Roy­als were saved by a sen­sa­tion­al 144-run part­ner­ship be­tween Atha­p­aththu and Webb.

By the time the for­mer was bowled by Jonassen with the last ball of the 19th over af­ter hit­ting 10 fours and three six­es, the Roy­als re­quired just two runs from the fi­nal six balls.

Webb fin­ished off pro­ceed­ings by scor­ing the fi­nal two runs, which took her to her half-cen­tu­ry off 42 balls, in­clu­sive of four fours and one six.

CMC

Sum­marised scores

KNIGHT RID­ERS WOMEN 148-8 in 20 overs (Jess Jonassen 71, Shikha Pandey 24, Zai­da James 17, Jahzara Clax­ton 15; Chinelle Hen­ry 3-25, Shamil­ia Con­nell 2-33) vs ROY­ALS WOMEN 149-3 in 19.1 overs (Chamari Atha­p­aththu 89, Court­ney Webb 50 not out; Shikha Pandey 2-19).

Bar­ba­dos Roy­als Women won by sev­en wick­ets.