Chamari Athapaththu had a less than auspicious entrée to the Massy Women’s Caribbean Premier League, but a strong, balanced bowling effort and more brilliance from Hayley Matthews yielded a second win in as many games for the Barbados Royals.
On Thursday evening at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, Trinidad & Tobago, Matthews called correctly once again, and chose to field once again against 2022 winners, the Trinbago Knight Riders.
Sri Lanka superstar Athapaththu, a solid top-order batter and offspinner, has scored 371 runs and picked up 13 wickets in 12 T20Is this year. She scored 102 against Scotland, and took 4-29 against West Indies in June.
Having won against the Guyana Amazon Warriors on Wednesday evening, Matthews opted against asking the Sri Lankan newcomer to bowl on Thursday. But she was hardly needed.
Two wickets each for Matthews, Chinelle Henry, and Amanda-Jade Wellington, plus one each for Qiana Joseph and Aaliyah Alleyne, helped hold the Trinbagonians to 113-9 from their 20 overs.
The biggest partnership for the Riders was 50, off 46 balls, between Shikha Pandey and Zaida James. The next biggest was just 20.
Henry took Kycia Knight for a golden duck, although she conceded a boundary off her next delivery, and seven from the over. The 29-year-old Jamaican quick’s second over yielded her second wicket, that of Harshitha Samarawickrama for three.
In came the powerful Deandra Dottin to the crease. She had added just four when her partner, Jemimah Rodrigues departed, caught Matthews off the bowling of Alleyne.
Matthews took another catch off Joseph’s bowling in the sixth over, removing Jess Jonassen for duck, and reducing Trinbago to 31-4.
Fchedean Nation was run out for two, before Dottin unleashed a brief assault on Afy Fletcher, hitting her for two fours and a six in the ninth over.
But in the 10th over, it was Wellington’s revenge, the Australian trapping Dottin leg before wicket for 28 off 26 balls. At the halfway stage, Knight Riders were 57-6.
The incoming James quickly took nine off Matthews, then five off Wellington in successive overs. Joseph and Matthews tightened the screws, somewhat, but it was Wellington who finally took Pandey for 30, the top score in the innings.
Matthews cleaned up James for 22, then Jahzara Claxton for one in the 19th over. TKR limped across the line, adding just five runs in the final 18 balls.
Athapaththu hit a boundary and a single before going LBW to Jonassen in the second over. The spin trio of record West Indies wicket taker Anisa Mohammed, along with James and fellow teenager Samara Ramnath, failed to restrict Matthews and and Joseph. They moved quickly to 70-1 by the 10th over, 13 runs ahead of Trinbago at the same stage.
Matthews brought up her second consecutive half-century with a four off Dottin. It was her 10th boundary, coming off the 60th legal delivery of the innings, and her 41st faced. Joseph had hit two fours in a knock of 14.
Joseph went to Mohammed at last for 16 from 19 balls in the 12th over. But Alleyne then hit Ramnath for six in the 13th, before going to Jonassen for 11 in the 15th. Laura Haris took four and six from her second and third balls faced to take the Royals to 98-3, needing 16 runs from 30 balls to win.
The asking rate was more than halved with nine runs taken from the 16th over, bowled by Pandey.
Matthews ended the proceedings with a four off Pandey, her 12th four, taking her to an unbeaten 67 from 56 balls, and winning by seven wickets with 17 balls remaining.
The Royals women are now off until next Monday, when they will once again play the Guyana Amazon Warriors. In between, the West Indies men will take on South Africa, whilst the Cricket West Indies Rising Stars Men’s Under-17 50-Overs Championship will get underway, also in Trinidad & Tobago.
(TF)
