Source: Saturday Express
West Indies women’s skipper Hayley Matthews has hailed the fight shown by her charges as one of the positives to be taken from their five-wicket defeat to their Indian counterparts in the final game of a three-match ODI series at Kotambi International Cricket Stadium yesterday.
Deepti Sharma and Renuka Singh ripped through the West Indies women’s batting to lead the hosts to another comfortable win.
Player-of-the-Match Sharma bagged six wickets– her second five-wicket haul in ODIs –while Singh, who was named Player-of-the-Series, captured the other four as the home side dismissed the Windies for a modest 162 in 38.5 overs.
Chinelle Henry, in her first game of the series, top-scored with 61, while Shemaine Campbelle made a gritty 46.
Despite a few hiccups, India wasted little time in getting to their target, with Sharma returning to score an unbeaten 39 to guide them to 167 for five in 28.2 overs.
“We were probably a few runs short, but it was good to see the fight shown in the second half,” Matthews said after the match. “Everyone getting up and about, and I guess it shows that no matter what, we want to fight until the very end.”
On the decision at the toss to bat first, she said the wicket was tricky in both halves of the game but noted that it started turning a lot more later on in the fixtures. However, she said it was a matter of making the adjustments with the bat.
“We didn’t adjust how well we had to,” Matthews lamented. In terms of the positives from the tour, the West Indies captain said it gave them an idea of the depth in the squad and said that a lot of the players would have gotten personal milestones to build on going forward.
“As a group, we got to see the depth we have. To see Henry stand up was good (and it was good to see) the personal milestones that a lot of the girls have been able to reach,” she added.
The West Indies chose to bat first, but it did not solve the team’s batting woes. They endured yet another dreadful start with Qiana Joseph edging the first ball of the innings, a harmless delivery down the leg side by pacer Singh, into the hands of wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh.
And five balls later, captain Hayley Matthews was back in the pavilion for a two-ball duck, bowled by a vicious in-swinger from Singh, to leave the Windies one for two.
Deandra Dottin drove Titas Sadhu down the ground for a boundary, but Singh bowled her in the next over, attempting an ill-advised heave to see the visitors slump to nine for three.
However, a 97-run partnership between Henry and Campbell brought the Windies right back into the match and gave them hope of posting a competitive total.
They both started slowly before Campbelle unleashed a series of delightful drives, and Henry broke the shackles by launching Tanuja Kanwar for a massive six-over long on. Campbell then turned her attention to leg-spinner Priya Mishra, hitting her for consecutive boundaries in the 17th over.
Henry moved into the 40s with another huge six off Kanwar, but after guiding the Caribbean women to three figures, Campbelle was caught at long on trying to hit Sharma out of the ground. Zaida James’ stay at the crease didn’t last long, scoring just one before Sharma had her caught at slip to make it 102 for five.
Henry would eventually bring up her third ODI half-century off 62 balls when she guided Kanwar to third man for two runs. She then added 39 runs with Aaliyah Alleyne, but once she was bowled by Sharma, it sparked another collapse that saw the West Indies lose their last five wickets for 21 runs.
Sharma proved the chief destroyer, accounting for the wickets of Alleyne, Afy Fletcher and Ashmini Munisar, finishing her allotted 10 overs with 6-31, while Singh took 4-29 from her 9.5 overs.
The West Indies started positively, with Alleyne removing Smriti Mandhana (four) cheaply for the first time in the series, while Dottin dismissed last-match hero Harleen Deol (one) to leave India 23 for two.
And when Matthews snagged the wicket of Pratika Rawal for 18, and Fletcher bowled captain Harmanpreet Kaur for 32, India were in a spot of bother at 73 for four.
Sharma then came to her side’s rescue again, first adding 56 with Jemimah Rodrigues, who made 29 and then featured in an unbroken 38-run partnership with Richa Ghosh, who made an unbeaten 23, to carry the home side to victory and ensure the series sweep.