India swept aside West Indies in a commanding 8-wicket victory in East London on Monday, January 30th, in the second match of the tri-series. With the finalists already determined, West Indies had little motivation to play, except to prepare for the upcoming World Cup. Nevertheless, their batting faltered once again.
West Indies got off to a decent start, reaching 18/0 in the first three overs, but Deepti Sharma quickly made an impact by dismissing Rashada Williamson with a brilliant delivery that turned after pitching, breaching the defence. Shemaine Campbell then suffered a similar fate and was dismissed for a duck on the first ball, leaving West Indies in a precarious position.
Although Hayley Matthews hit a couple of boundaries in the next over, the scoring rate significantly decreased. At the midway point, West Indies had only 46 runs on the board. Pooja Vastrakar then took the wicket of Matthews as she top-edged a delivery to depart for 34. India took complete control of the game, making it difficult for West Indies to score runs. In her final over, Deepti added one more wicket to her name, finishing with excellent figures of 3/11 as West Indies finished with 94/6.
This target posed no threat to the Indian side, despite the early loss of Smriti Mandhana. Jemimah Rodrigues hit a few boundaries in one over and appeared in good form. Harleen Deol, who joined Jemimah in the middle after Mandhana’s dismissal, struggled to get going, but her dismissal did little to slow India’s momentum.
Harmanpreet Kaur was on top form from the outset, hitting boundaries at regular intervals, reaching 20 off just 14 deliveries. She then hit consecutive boundaries off Zaida James before Jemimah brought the game to a close with more than six overs to spare. India, undefeated in the tournament, will now play the final against host South Africa on Thursday.
