TAROUBA, Trinidad, CMC – Player-of-the-Match Hayley Matthews struck a superb half-century before Australian leg-spinner Amanda-Jade Wellington produced a four-wicket haul as Barbados Royals beat Guyana Amazon Warriors by eight runs to win the Women’s Caribbean Premier League here yesterday.
Sent in at the Brian Lara Stadium, Royals rattled up 169 for seven from their 20 overs, with Matthews crafting a brilliant 82 from 59 balls and Rashada Williams getting 36 from 23 deliveries.
Wellington then claimed four for 23 as Amazon Warriors collapsed from 141 for three in the 18th over, losing five wickets for 19 runs to watch their run chase come apart spectacularly.
Captain Shemaine Campbelle top-scored with an unbeaten 47 off 35 balls while opener Suzie Bates stroked a run-a-ball 36 and Natasha McLean, a 17-ball 28 but the 21 runs required from the final over was always a mountain too difficult to climb.
Royals captain Matthews was the anchor for the innings, lashing ten fours and a brace of sixes as she put on 36 for the first wicket with Gaby Lewis (21) and an important 108 for the second wicket with Williams who counted half-dozen fours and a six.
However, Williams and Laura Harris (0) fell in successive deliveries in the 17th over, leading to a slide as six wickets tumbled for 24 runs.
In reply, Sophie Devine struck 22 from 20 balls in a 35-run opening stand but her demise, along with that of captain Stafanie Taylor (4), left Amazon Warriors on 47 for two at the start of the seventh over.
Campbelle, who lashed four fours and two sixes, arrived to stitch together two important partnerships, posting 60 for the third wicket with Bates who struck four fours, and then adding a further 34 for the fourth with McLean who belted a four and a couple of sixes.
McLean’s dismissal was the turning point, Amazon Warriors losing their way as four wickets went down for eight runs in the space of seven deliveries.
