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Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Windies Women book semifinal berth with clinical win over England

by

SPORTS DESK
280 days ago
20241016
West Indies' players celebrate their win against England during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 match at Dubai International Stadium, United Arab Emirates, yesterday. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

West Indies' players celebrate their win against England during the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 match at Dubai International Stadium, United Arab Emirates, yesterday. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Altaf Qadri

Dubai, Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates West In­dies Women saved their best per­for­mance of the 2024 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup for when it mat­tered most, in a clin­i­cal six-wick­et vic­to­ry over Eng­land Women that saw them progress to the semi­fi­nal round on Tues­day.

In a must-win game, Qiana Joseph scored her first-ever T20 half cen­tu­ry for the West In­dies, and cap­tain Hay­ley Matthews struck an even 50 as the Caribbean side chased down Eng­land’s 141 for sev­en in 20 overs, fin­ish­ing on 144 for four off 18 overs.

The vic­to­ry was the West In­dies women’s first win over Eng­land women since 2018 and snapped a 13-game los­ing streak.

The re­sult helped the Windies top Group B while elim­i­nat­ing Eng­land from the tour­na­ment, with South Africa ad­vanc­ing in sec­ond po­si­tion on net run rate af­ter all three teams fin­ished on six points.

It al­so marks the first time the West In­dies women have qual­i­fied for the semi­fi­nal of a T20 World Cup since 2018.

Aus­tralia will play South Africa in the first semi­fi­nal on Thurs­day, while the Windies and New Zealand will bat­tle on Fri­day for a spot in the fi­nal.

Play­ing in her 100th T20 in­ter­na­tion­al, skip­per Matthews and Joseph added 102 runs in an open­ing part­ner­ship that put them in firm con­trol.

It was an es­pe­cial­ly im­pres­sive show­ing by Joseph, who opened in place of the in­jured Stafanie Tay­lor, who was ruled out with a leg in­jury.

Matthews wast­ed lit­tle time in get­ting on the score­board, blast­ing fast bowler Lau­ren Bell’s sec­ond de­liv­ery of the in­nings over the bound­ary at long leg.

Two balls lat­er, she guid­ed Bell past a short fine leg for four and then end­ed off the over that leaked 14 runs with an­oth­er bound­ary over mid-off.

Joseph sent Nat Sciv­er-Brunt to the bound­ary on two oc­ca­sions in the next over, as the West In­dies raced to 26 with­out loss.

An ag­gres­sive Joseph then clob­bered off-spin­ner Char­lie Deane for a six over mid­wick­et and fol­lowed it up with suc­ces­sive bound­aries off left-arm spin­ner So­phie Ec­cle­stone in the fourth over.

Joseph was lucky not to be dis­missed by Sciv­er-Brunt when she was 31, but Al­ice Capsey spilt the op­por­tu­ni­ty.

They were made to pay for the chance, and Matthews brought up the West In­dies’ 50 in the fifth over when she tick­led Sciv­er-Brunt to a fine leg for four.

Matthews con­tin­ued her as­sault by hit­ting Dean for three more bound­aries in the sixth over as the West In­dies end­ed the pow­er play on 67 with­out loss.

Joseph moved in­to the 40s af­ter sur­viv­ing an­oth­er chance, this time Ma­ia Bouch­i­er drop­ping the catch at deep mid­wick­et.

Bouch­i­er gave Joseph a third life­line when she got both hands to Joseph’s slug that went to deep mid­wick­et, but she palmed the ball over the rope for six.

Joseph even­tu­al­ly brought up her maid­en T20 half cen­tu­ry off 34 balls when she whipped leg-spin­ner Sarah Glenn to deep mid­wick­et for a sin­gle.

Her luck even­tu­al­ly ran out when she was caught by Dan­ni Wy­att-Hodge for 52 off 38 balls, in­clu­sive of two six­es and six fours.

Matthews brought up her 14th T20I fifty short­ly af­ter­wards, but with the score 104 for one, she was back in the pavil­ion af­ter mis­cu­ing a pull-off for Glenn to be out for 50 from 38 balls. Her knock con­tained sev­en fours and one six.

Her dis­missal brought De­an­dra Dot­tin to the crease, and she en­sured the West In­dies stayed in the as­cen­dan­cy by clob­ber­ing Deane for two six­es and a four in the 16th over to leave her team need­ing 14 runs from 24 balls.

And even though both She­maine Camp­belle and Dot­tin lost their wick­ets, Aaliyah Al­leyne held her nerve to end the con­test by dri­ving Ec­cle­stone to the cov­er bound­ary to spark wild cel­e­bra­tions among the West In­dies camp.

West In­dies’ bowlers had ear­li­er laid the ground­work by re­strict­ing Eng­land, with on­ly Nat Sciv­er-Brunt putting up any re­al re­sis­tance.

Sciv­er-Brunt scored an un­beat­en 57 from 50 balls, but Eng­land’s in­nings fell back once cap­tain Heather Knight was forced to re­tire hurt on 21, with the score 80 for three.

Afy Fletch­er was the main de­stroy­er with 3-21 from her four overs, while Matthews took 2-35.

SUM­MARISE SCORES

ENG­LAND 141-7 in 20 overs (Nat Sciv­er-Brunt 57 not out, Heather Knight 21 re­tired hurt, Dan­ni Wy­att-Hodge 16, Ma­ia Bouch­i­er 14; Afy Fletch­er 3-21, Hay­ley Matthews 2-35) vs WEST IN­DIES 144-4 in 18 overs (Qiana Joseph 52, Hay­ley Matthews 50, De­an­dra Dot­tin 27).

Re­sult: West In­dies won by six wick­ets.

Play­er-of-the-Match: Qiana Joseph.

Um­pires: Eloise Sheri­dan, Sarah Dambanevana.

TV Um­pire: Claire Polosak.

Match Ref­er­ee: Shan­dre Fritz.

Re­serve Um­pire: Vrin­da Rathi.


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