Ramharack and Matthews Propel West Indies to Semi-Final Contention with Crucial 8 Wickets Victory

Key Performances and Match Results

West Indies 104 for 2 (Matthews 34, Marufa 1-20) beat Bangladesh 103 for 8 (Nigar 39, Ramharack 4-17) by 8 wickets.

Match Analysis

With the support of Hayley Matthews’ explosive 34 and Karishma Ramharack’s four wickets, West Indies defeated Bangladesh by an important eight wicket margin in Sharjah. With their second victory in three games, West Indies climbed to the top of Group B after reaching the goal of 104 in 12.5 overs. Now, three teams from this group—South Africa and England also on four points, though the latter have only played two games—are vying for the two semi-final positions.

Bangladesh lost for the second time in three games, severely hurting their prospects of making it to the next round. Bangladesh was brought in to bat and lost six wickets for 27 runs, demonstrating the damaging effects of batting once more.

Even though the West Indies deployed up to seven bowlers, Ramharack stood out because she took one wicket in each of her four overs in various stages of the game. When opener Shathi Rani attempted to sweep but missed, the offspinner hit with her very first delivery. Shemaine Campbelle quickly removed the bails in order to achieve a stumping.

Dilara Akter attempted to sweep in her second over, the final one in the powerplay, but she misplayed, exposing her middle stump and getting bowled. In the thirteenth over, Ramharack came out to bowl and did a good job of mixing her lines while keeping the ball outside off. By forcing Sobhana Mostary to come down the track to an outside offstump delivery, she managed to stump her. That put a stop to Bangladesh’s 40-run third-wicket stand.

In the final overs, Ritu Moni and Nigar Sultana were trying to hold each other together when Ramaharack returned and hit Moni for a six. The hitter came down and miscued a lofted shot to deep midwicket, but Chinelle Henry made a great running catch. Ramharack had a final score of 4 for 17.

Bangladesh’s openers demonstrated early promise with the bat, sprinting down to go aerial as early as the second over. After the openers were out in the powerplay, Nigar got off to a fast start. Specifically, she faced legspinner Afy Fletcher and struck three fours in her opening over, reaching 20 off 17 balls.

In spite of the careless fielding by the West Indies, Nigar, who was on 27 off 27, slowed down when Mostary was out in the 13th over and Fletcher struck twice in the 15th. She managed to score just 12 runs off her next 17 deliveries before being caught by Matthews in the last over when trying a massive blow to deep midwicket.

Bangladesh made a mistake on the shorter side, which cost them dearly as they failed to pitch the ball up. The West Indies hitters were able to play their shots and rock back as a result. Taking advantage of this, Matthews in particular executed a powerplay that subdued Bangladesh’s offensive. Following a run-a-ball seven, Matthews timed a punch off the backfoot to line up Nahida Akter’s left-arm spin, piercing the space between extra cover and cover. Nahida bowled short again after two balls and was given the same punishment.

Legspinner Fahima Khatun bowled short on off stump in the fifth over, giving up just four runs from her opening over. Matthews stayed back and blasted uppishly to find her third off-side boundary. The final ball of the powerplay was overpitched by Marufa Akter, and Matthews smashed it through cover to score her sixth boundary.

However, in the eighth over, the fast bowler bowled her for a 22-ball 34 with a nip-backer. But at the end of Marufa’s over, West Indies required just 49 from 72 balls, which was handled by Deandra Dottin, who hit an undefeated 19 off just seven balls, and Stafanie Taylor, who limped off retired hurt.