After the West Indies secured an 8-wicket victory against Bangladesh on October 10 at the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024, captain Hayley Matthews believes that the discipline with the bat helped the side at Sharjah.
Bowling first, West Indies bowlers dominated Bangladesh and restricted the hosts to 103 runs. They eventually raced to the target in 12.5 overs, boosted their net run rate to +1.708, and secured the top place in Group B.
West Indies spinners bowled over 17 overs and tied hands of Bangladesh in their innings. The eight overs between them had bowling figures of 5/36 where Afy Fletcher also picked 2/25.
Nigar Sultana was the top scorer with 39 runs off 44 deliveries. The next highest score for Bangladesh is 19 runs from Silara Akter.
While speaking at the post-match presentation, Hayley Matthews said, “We spoke about being really disciplined with the ball and I think it was great execution in getting them to hit where we wanted them to,” said WI skipper Matthews after the win.
“And then with the bat the intent, we were able to take that through the innings. It was definitely a help in going into the last match with a healthy net run rate,” Hayley Matthews said.
West Indies will be playing their final group-stage match against England in their final group game with qualification still not sealed. Unless an upset happens in the other game of Group B, they will need to beat England to advance to the semi-final stage.
“I think she’s got a knee problem, but they’re trying to look after her really well,” said Matthews providing an update on Taylor.
“Today at the water break it was just a matter of I guess realizing the position we were in the game, and the fact that she could probably go off.
“She’s a fighter, and I think she knows how to manage her body pretty well. She’s been putting up a good fight this tournament trying to stay on the park,” she said.
“I think we had a very good start, but in the middle, we played so many dots and then we gave them so many wickets as well,” Sultana said.
“Their bowlers bowled really well in the middle overs and weren’t giving us room to play our shots. We missed out on so many singles also, which built the pressure,” she elaborated further.
“I think the bowlers have done their job each game and it’s our job to be strong as a batting unit,” Sultana said.
West Indies will be playing their final group-stage match against England on October 15 at Dubai International Stadium.
