New Delhi:
The Indian women's cricket team continued their dominance in the ongoing series against West Indies as they won the rain-affected fourth Twenty20 International at Providence, Guyana by five runs to take a 4-0 lead in the five-match series. In a match that was reduced to nine overs due to rain, West Indies chose to bowl and Hayley Matthews was the star with three wickets from her two overs. Afy Fletcher and Shenta Grimmond also took two wickets and only Pooja Vaastrakar managed to reach double figures. After the end of nine overs, India managed to reach 50/7.
However, it was tough going even for the West Indies batters. Anuja Patil, Radha Yadav and Deepti Sharma kept things tight. Matthews, Chinelle Henry and Natasha McLean all reached double figures but West Indies were unable to catch up with the asking rate. In the end, Patil was the star for her accurate bowling as the Indian team bowled and fielded with discipline to restrict the West Indies.
This was the second consecutive match at Providence that ended up as a low-scoring encounter. In the third match, India's spinners put on an exhibition of bowling to restrict West Indies to 59/9 in 20 overs. Radha Yadav bowled two maidens and ended with figures of 2/6 from four overs while Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Patil and Poonam Yadav took a wicket apiece apart from Harmanpreet Kaur.
Also Read | Shafali Verma Scores 2nd Consecutive Fifty, India Thrash West Indies By 10 Wickets In Twenty20 Match
There were three maidens bowled in the innings as West Indies struggled on the slow and low Providence wicket. In reply, India lost Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur in their chase but Jemimah Rodrigues hit 40 off 51 balls which included four boundaries as India won the match by seven wickets but they consumed close to 17 overs. The fifth and final T20 of the series will be played in Guyana on Thursday as India aim to secure a 5-0 whitewash. India women had defeated West Indies women 2-1 in the three-match ODI series that preceded the T20s.
