A swift turnaround after a lacklustre start saw the West Indies Women reignite their T20 World Cup campaign with a commanding victory over Scotland. Following a crushing ten-wicket defeat to South Africa, the Women in Maroon responded emphatically, securing a six-wicket win with 50 balls to spare at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday night.
Chinelle Henry’s disciplined opening spell, which yielded one for ten from four overs, kept Scotland in check at 27 for 2 after seven overs. The experienced Afy Fletcher, 37, then spun her magic with figures of 3 for 22, helping to restrict Scotland to 99 for 8. The score could have been even lower had the West Indies capitalised on their catching opportunities.
Chasing a modest target of 100, Qiana Joseph led the way with a brisk 31 off 18 balls, while Henry contributed 18 off 10. Deandra Dottin sealed the victory in style, hammering Abtaha Maqsood for a sequence of 6-4-6, clearing long-off, reverse-sweeping through backward point, and smashing over deep midwicket.
Reflecting on the victory, Fletcher said, “The first game didn’t go to plan. No one wants to lose, but at the end of the day, you have to have a winner. It didn’t go the way we wanted so we go back to the drawing board as all teams do, and we look at areas that we really need to work on and execute. We’ve come out with strong plans and I think the team gave a strong performance throughout the game, and the result was really good.”
The Grenadian continued “After the first loss, we were a bit down. But from the night itself, we picked ourselves up and we got together and motivated each other and said, ‘look, we’re here, not just to come on a joyride or anything but we’re here for business, we’re here to play hard and tough cricket’. So we just got our thoughts together to see how we could bring our best game for the other games.”
Their six-wicket triumph over Scotland also propelled the West Indies Women into second place in Group B, with a net run rate of 1.154, ahead of South Africa and Bangladesh. The Maroon Women now look ahead to their upcoming clash against hosts Bangladesh on Thursday, before facing group leaders England on October 15.
