Trinidad & Tobago matched Barbados’ win over Guyana with a big one, in the context of the title race, versus Jamaica on Saturday; this in round four of the Women’s Super 50, to ensure they had a chance at dethroning the champions when the two met in the ultimate round on Monday. In a game that was essentially a final – winner takes all – both teams entered undefeated. One could tell from the enthralling encounter that this was a battle of the heavyweights. It was anything but one-sided.
On the day, Trinidad & Tobago won the toss and sent Barbados to bat, up at Enmore. And it looked the correct decision when they had the hosts on the back foot early on, picking up two wickets before Barbados was able to get a run on the board. The experience of the defending champions was to prevail, however, as the spine – again – this time in the form of Deandra Dottin, Kycia and Kyshona Knight led the rebuild; ultimately taking their team to a title-winning total. The trio all notched half-centuries, scoring 73, 77 and 56 respectively to get the Bajans up to 242/7 after their 50 overs.
T&T got off to a steady start, getting up to 38 without loss and even looked set to launch at 114/2 after 31 overs, but up stepped the world number one all-rounder and so did the run-rate. And so Barbados reclaimed their title after dismissing their closest challengers for 214 to claim a 28-run win. Player of the match, Dottin, finished with 6/43.
Elsewhere on the day, both Jamaica and Guyana finished the tournament on winning notes; Jamaica swept aside the Leeward Islands and Guyana got by the Windwards in another low-scoring affair. Stafanie Taylor led the Jamaican bowling with 4/9 as the Leeward Islands was dismissed for 91. Player of the match, Taylor then accompanied Chedean Nation (54*) in seeing the team over the line with an unbeaten 24.
Over at the Georgetown Cricket Club, hosts Guyana might have thought they were in trouble when they were bundled out for 132 by the Windward Islands. However, in the same 33.2 overs Guyana batted, the Windwards could only manage 75 before being dismissed themselves; Evra Giddings with 4/23 was named the player of the match.