WI U-19 women beat US by 5 runs in low-scoring thriller

WEST Indies' under-19 women's team took a 2-1 lead in their five-match Twenty/20 series against the US on July 24 when they got a dramatic five-run win in a low-scoring, rain-affected affair at the Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Ground in UWI, St Augustine.

Following steady overnight rain and rain on the morning of July 24, the game was reduced to 11 overs per side.

Visiting captain Anika Kolan won the toss and sent the young Windies women to have first strike, with the hosts getting to a competitive score of 72 for five.

In the first T20, the hosts were reduced to a paltry 69 for nine from 20 overs, but rebounded in the second game after bowling out the US team for just 65. Opening batter Asabi Callender and Naijanni Cumberbatch led the way in West Indies' chase in the second T20, and repeated the trick in the third T20 as they set up their team's innings beautifully with a 40-run partnership for the second wicket.

West Indies lost captain Samara Ramnath (duck) in just the second over as US ace Aditi Chudasama (two for five) got her wicket with her fifth delivery.

Callender hit a game-high score of 33 from 23 balls with four fours and a six, with a busy Cumberbatch getting 26 off 20 balls with the solitary six. Critically, Cumberbatch faced just four dot balls in her innings and kept the score ticking regularly.

After Callender was run out by Isani Vaghela in the seventh over to leave the Windies on 48 for two, the hosts lost Brianna Harricharan (one), Abigail Bryce (one) and Cumberbatch in quick succession, with the latter being bowled by Chudasama in the penultimate over.

With the game nicely poised at the halfway stage, the US appeared to be taking control of proceedings as the opening pair of Chetna Pagydyala (17 off 13 balls) and Dishi Dhingra (11) raced the score to 28 without loss inside three overs.

After failing to trouble the scorers with the bat, Ramnath began her influence with ball in hand when she had a sweeping Pagydyala trapped lbw in the fourth over to leave the visitors on 31 for one.

The visitors quickly slipped to 35 for three in the sixth over as Dhingra was stumped off Cumberbatch's bowling and Vaghela fell lbw to Ramnath without scoring.

The middle-order pair of Ritu Singh (12) and Kolan (14 not out) then shared in a purposeful 26-run stand for the fourth wicket, but the game swung back into West Indies' favour when Singh was expertly yorked by leg-spinner Harricharan (one for ten) in the penultimate over to leave the visitors on 61 for four.

The US needed 12 off the last eight balls at the fall of Singh's wicket, and they needed ten at the start of the final over, which was bowled by Ramnath.

The West Indies got a dream start to the final over when Sasha Vallabhaneni (one) was run out by wicket-keeper Dicoreya Collymore following a fumble by the latter. Kolan and new batter Pooja Shah scrambled four runs off the next four balls, to leave the visitors needing six off the last ball to clinch the victory.

The right-handed Shah had an almighty swing to the on-side off the last ball, but a sprinting Bryce took an excellent catch on the long-on boundary to ensure West Indies got the nail-biting win to take a 2-1 series lead. Ramnath finished with the impressive figures of three for 12 from her three overs.

From 10 am on July 25 in St Augustine, Ramnath and her West Indies team will try to seal a series win.

WEST INDIES: 72/5 from 11 overs (Asabi Callender 33, Naijanni Cumberbatch 26; Aditi Chudasama 2/5, Ritu Singh 1/11) vs USA: 67/6 from 11 overs (Chetna Pagydyala 17, Anika Kolan 14 not out, Ritu Singh 12; Samara Ramnath 3/12, N Cumberbatch 1/8). Windies U-19s won by 5 runs.