Aliyah Alleyne took three wickets in an over to bowl West Indies to a nail-biting victory over Scotland at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup on Thursday night.
The seam bowler from Barbados sent down a superb penultimate over as West Indies bowled out Scotland for 146 to win by seven runs at Headingley in Leeds.
This victory propelled West Indies to the top of Group B alongside England.
Alleyne ended with figures of three wickets for 11 runs from her two overs to spark a late comeback as Scotland lost four wickets for 14 runs off the last two overs. Two of her wickets were bowled and the other caught-and bowled in a magnificent solo performance.
Captain Hayley Matthews (3-19) and Afy Fletcher (2-16) proved too much for the Scots in the middle overs. The heroics by Alleyne followed up her career-best 4-27 in the previous match against New Zealand – when West Indies won in the last over.
She is now the leading wickets taker in the tournament with seven wickets at an average of 5.4 runs per wicket and economy of 6.3 runs per over.
Earlier in the match Stafanie Taylor made 47 not out off just 19 balls to give the innings a late surge. She hit three sixes and four fours as West Indies scored 65 runs in the last six overs to mount a challenging target.
She was named Player-of-the-Match.
The West Indies will now travel south to Bristol for their next match against Sri Lanka on Sunday morning. This will be followed by an historic clash against England at Lord’s next Wednesday evening under the floodlights. (PS)