LONDON, CMC – West Indies Women’s captain, Stafanie Taylor, suffered disappointment here yesterday when her Southern Brave suffered a 48-run thrashing at the hands of Oval Invincibles, in the final of the inaugural Hundred at Lord’s.
Asked to chase a modest 122 for victory, Brave’s batting imploded spectacularly, as they were bowled out for just 73 off 98 deliveries.
Taylor managed 18 off 22 deliveries while number eight Fi Morris top-scored with 23 off 26 balls, but the remainder of Brave’s highly vaunted batting lineup failed to shine.
South Africa fast bowler Marizanne Kapp proved the key for Invincibles, snatching four for nine from just 18 balls to earn Player-of-the-Match honours.
Sent in earlier in front of a 17 000 strong crowd, Invincibles rallied to 121 for six off their 100 balls with Kapp and her wife, Dane van Niekerk, top-scoring with 26 apiece.
Georgia Adams fell for five off the 11th ball of the innings but Van Niekerk – voted Player-of-the-Series – put on a valuable 56 for the second wicket with Fran Wilson (25).
Kapp arrived to hit four fours in a 14-ball cameo, adding a further 34 for the fourth wicket with Alice Capsey (18).
The new-ball pair Anya Shrubsole (2-16) and Lauren Bell (2-24) finished with two wickets apiece while Taylor went wicketless from 15 balls of off-spin which cost 18 runs.
With ball in hand, Kapp then scythed through the Brave top order to reduce the innings to 14 for six, a position from which they failed to recover.
Taylor was seventh out, missing a charge at leg-spinner van Niekerk and going stumped off the 57th ball of the innings, after hitting two fours.
Fi Morris and Tara Morris (11) put on 33 off 28 balls for the eighth wicket but the partnership came too little too late to alter the outcome.
Brave were the best side in the preliminaries, topping the standings with 14 points from seven wins in eight outings.
