West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland

DUBAI (AFP) – Former champions West Indies recovered from their opening rout by South Africa to defeat Scotland by six wickets at the Women’s T20 World Cup on Sunday.

The 2016 winners, who had suffered a 10-wicket thrashing by the South Africans at the same Dubai venue on Friday, were rarely threatened by a Scotland side making their tournament debut this year.

The Scots struggled to 99-8 in their 20 overs before the West Indies chased down their target with 50 balls to spare, securing victory and an impressive boost to their net run-rate.

Qiana Joseph top-scored with 31 from 18 balls, hitting three fours and a six.

Deandra Dottin cracked two sixes in her undefeated 28 from 15 balls while sharing an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 42 with player of the match Chinelle Henry.

Henry made a brisk 18 from 10 balls including two fours and a six having earlier returned figures of 1-10 from four overs of fast bowling.

“We did pretty well with the ball, limited the boundary balls,” said West Indies skipper Hayley Matthews.

“We got ourselves in a secure position and then we think about the net run rate and we did it.”

Opting to bat first, skipper Kathryn Bryce (25) and Ailsa Lister (26) had attempted to steady the ship for Scotland with a 46-run partnership for the third wicket after both openers were back in the pavilion with just 13 on the board.

However, Bryce and Lister fell to 37-year-old leg-spinner Afy Fletcher who also dismissed Priyanaz Chatterji for a first-ball duck as the Scots’ middle order crumbled.

“With the firepower they have, it was tricky,” admitted Bryce.

“We didn’t get off to a good start, we didn’t get any momentum in the middle.”

Matthews had opener Saskia Horley caught at midwicket by Dottin in the second over to reach 100 wickets in T20 international cricket.

Scotland have now lost their two opening games at the World Cup after being edged out by 16 runs by Bangladesh on Thursday.