Dublin, May 30 (IANS) West Indies continued their impressive start to the Women’s Tri-Series in Ireland, registering a convincing 25-run victory over Pakistan on Friday to make it two wins from two matches.

After defeating the home side the day before, West Indies again produced a fine all-round performance with all parts of the batting lineup firing, and the bowlers limiting Pakistan’s response in a chase of 200.

After winning the toss and batting, two of the mainstays of West Indies’ lineup in Deandra Dottin and Qiana Joseph had quiet contributions. Captain Hayley Matthews got the West Indies off to a flyer with an aggressive 40 from 20 balls which included nine boundaries, which really got West Indies off and running for a large score.

After Matthews’s departure, veteran Stafanie Taylor took the reins and brought up her 39 to continue the innings, while at the back end of the innings there was a flurry of boundaries at the death from Chinelle Henry and Jannillea Glasgow. They blasted their way to 199-6 with Glasgow making a superb 42 from just 25 balls while Henry remained unbeaten on 33 off 17.

When the Pakistan innings began, things got off to the worst possible start as they lost 3 wickets in the first 4 overs, this really got them into a hole and was a dire start at 28/3. Muneeba Ali was dismissed first ball of the game and Henry came in and took the scalps of Muneeba Ali as well as Ayesha Zafar two balls later, that effectively sent Pakistan onto the back foot.

However, there was still plenty of resistance with Saira Jabeen smashing a fast 30 off 19 balls, however with neither Rameen Shamim or Iram Javed able to convert starts into big scores, it became harder. But Aliya Riaz came to the crease with a big hitter in Fatima Sana following her in, Riaz hit a fast paced 37 from 28 balls while Sana smashed 27 off 14, but ultimately their challenge would never reach Pakistan’s target as West Indies closed them out and reached a comfortable 25-run victory.

Brief scores:

West Indies Women 199/6 in 20 overs (Jannillea Glasgow 42, Hayley Matthews 40; Rameen Shamim 2-27) beat Pakistan Women 174/8 in 20 overs (Aliya Riaz 37; Chinelle Henry 2-13, Shawnisha Hector 2-21) by 25 runs.

–IANS

hs/