In what turned out to be an absolute humdinger, the women from the Caribbean managed to find a way to upstage the Indian women in a low scoring affair. On a slow and sluggish surface at Antigua, the hosts elected to bat first after winning the toss.
The Windies didn’t mainly come on the back of an encouraging record before this game. Besides the upheaval of their coaching staff, they also were missing key players due to injuries and disciplinary reasons. Hence, the responsibility for a specific group of players had increased for this game. To make matters worse, they lost their last seven ODIs and haven’t won a bilateral series since beating Sri Lanka Women in the 2017-18 series.
However, despite this, Windies – with minimum contribution from their batters, escaped with a confidence-boosting win. Among the top-order, Natasha Mclean (51) posted a half-century to set the tone for a formidable score.
It was the skipper Stefanie Taylor who became a glue around a floundering middle-order. Chedean Nation chipped in with an invaluable contribution of 43 alongside Taylor, who stayed till the end to post a target of 226 for the visitors. The Indian women were exceptional with the ball, having almost all the bowlers pitching in with at least a wicket each.
Windies Women restricted Indian Women to 224 runs
Meanwhile, the tourists started compellingly, adding 78 runs for the first wicket. The collapse precipitated when Anisa Mohammed took the wicket of Priya Punia for 75 in the 40th over. Nevertheless, India were still marginally ahead in the match, requiring 56 runs with seven wickets in hand. However, with none of the batters hanging around meant that the visitors lost their last seven wickets, finishing one run short of the Windies’ target.
Anisa Mohammed stood at the forefront, bagging five wickets for 46 runs in her quota of 10 overs while Stefanie Taylor and Shabika Gajnabi chipped in with two scalps each.