Selman, Mohammed star as Windies goes 1-0 up

Put in to bat, none of the Windies batters managed to convert their starts to big scores but still put up 140 for 4 at the Stanford Cricket Ground in Antigua. Its bowlers then ensured it was more than enough as they kept Sri Lanka to just 69 for 7 in its chase.

Windies got off to solid start with Hayley Matthews and Stafanie Taylor, the captain, putting on a 67-run opening stand. Matthews made a run-a-ball 37 with five boundaries before being stumped off Inoka Ranaweera, the left-arm spinner, in the 11th over. That put the brakes on the Windies scoring, and the momentum was affected further when Taylor (31 in 29 balls) was trapped lbw off Shashikala Siriwardene in the next over.

Sri Lanka’s bowlers kept chipping away but some good late hitting from Merissa Aguilleira (22 not out in 19) and the recalled Britney Cooper (20 not out in 11) lifted it from 106 for 4 to a strong total in the space of 19 deliveries.

Shakera Selman derailed Sri Lanka’s chase, sending back Chamari Athapaththu and Yasoda Mendis, the openers, inside three overs, and the visitors couldn’t recover from the setbacks. Only two Sri Lanka batters got into double-figures – Ama Kanchana made 18 off 21 balls from No. 3 and Rebeca Vandort, the wicketkeeper-batter, scored 10 off 23 balls from No. 7.

Selman and Anisa Mohammed, who took out the middle-order, bagged two wickets apiece.

The margin of victory – 71 runs – was Windies' third largest in T20Is and Sri Lanka’s 69 for 7 was its third-lowest total in the format.
Brief scores: Windies Women 140/4 in 20 overs (Hayley Matthews 37, Stafanie Taylor 31; Inoka Ranaweera 2-35) beat Sri Lanka Women 69/7 in 20 overs (Shakira Selman 2-6, Anisa Mohammed 2-14) by 71 runs.