Australia yesterday routed the West Indies by seven wickets in Wellington to maintain their perfect record at the ICC Women’s World Cup.
The tournament’s red-hot favorites produced another ruthless display to race to a 4-0 winning record at the one-day showcase, highlighted by an unbeaten 83 from Rachael Haynes.
The win puts the six-time champions at the top of the standings with a healthy run rate, virtually guaranteeing them a semi-final spot.
Photo: AFP
The West Indies have won two of their four matches and are still in with a chance of making the top four in the round-robin standings.
The West Indies won the toss and elected to bat, but were stunned when Ellyse Perry took two wickets in successive balls to leave them at 4-2.
“That’s the beauty of our squad, we’ve got such great depth,” Australia captain Meg Lanning said. “Anyone who does come in makes an impact on the game. They’re not just part of the team, they’re able to change the game.”
“I thought early wickets up front today made a difference in the game, put us in front an put them under pressure,” she said.
Perry clean bowled Hayley Matthews for duck then coaxed an edge off the first ball faced by Kycia Knight. It could have been worse, but Deandra Dottin and West Indies skipper Staphanie Taylor were both given reprieves by the third umpire.
Taylor made the most of her chance by battling on to 50, but could not find any support with Shemaine Campbelle the next highest score on 20.
Perry finished on 3-22 and Ashleigh Gardner took 3-25 as the West Indies were skittled for 131 in 45.5 overs.
The paltry total was never going to be enough against the strongest batting lineup in women’s cricket, but the West Indies did well to make Australia work for 30.2 overs to reach the 132-run target.
Taylor said that the West Indies needed a total of about 250 to defend, but she was heartened by their solid bowling display and optimistic about her side’s chances of advancing.
“It wasn’t the best batting performance from us,” Taylor said. “I think we just didn’t assess the conditions well and losing early wickets put a dent in the batting.”
“We still have three more [pool] games to go, that’s a lot of cricket,” she said. “We just have to go back to the drawing board and regroup.”
Additional reporting by AP
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