The queens of Caribbean cricket have won back-to-back titles

Aaliyah Alleyne celebrated her return to the West Indies team with career-best bowling for the Barbados Royals on Thursday afternoon, in the final of the Massy Women’s Caribbean Premier League. The defending champions defeated the Trinbago Knight Riders by four wickets, to lift their second consecutive title.

29-year-old pacer Alleyne became the third Barbados player in a row to be named player of the match in the WCPL final, after Deandra Dottin in 2022, and Hayley Matthews in 2023. Trinbago were held to just 93-8 at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, Trinidad & Tobago, a target the Royals overhauled with 30 balls to spare.

The Royals and Knight Riders had split their two games in the preliminary round, the latter fixture qualifying the 2022 champions to the title game.

For the first time, Royals captain Matthews called the toss correctly, and she put Trinbago in to bat. Her decision paid off in spades.

TKR captain Dottin took a maximum off the fifth ball of the innings, dispatching Chinelle Henry beyond the boundary. But four deliveries later, she was bowled by Matthews without adding to her score. 

Henry struck in the third over, taking Jemimah Rodrigues for two, and leaving TKR 10-2.  Jannillea Glasgow and Shikha Pandey orchestrated a mini recovery, taking the Knight Riders to 47 at the halfway mark with no further loss. 

But then began the Aaliyah Alleyne Show. She had Glasgow caught for 24 with her first ball of the innings, in an over that yielded just two runs. 

Aaliyah Alleyne was player of the match.

In her next over, Qiana Joseph had Jess Jonassen run out for six, then Alleyne bowled Pandey for 28. That turned out to be the top scorer in the TKR innings. 

In the 16th over, her third, Alleyne bowled both Chedean Nation and Zaida James, each contributing one run to the cause. Alleyne ended with 4-21, the first West Indies bowler to take four wickets in a WCPL fina, and the second-best figures by a pacer in the three-year history of the competition.

TKR were in further distress when Shamilia Connell was bowled by Matthews for two. Kycia Knight hit a quickfire 17 to end the innings on a flourish, but 93-8 never looked like a winning score.

The relatively early wicket of Matthews and a clutch of late dismissals did little to slow the Royals’ march to victory. They hit 12 fours, twice as many as TKR, and Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu herself had seven boundaries.

By the seventh over, when the Royals captain was caught by Dottin for 13 off the bowling of teenager Samara Ramnath, the score was already 48. Ahtapaththu had hit 31 from 25 balls.

Joseph was dismissed by Ramnath in the 11th over, a brilliant catch taken by Shemelia Connell in the deep. But the Saint Lucian had already hit 14 off 13 at that stage, and the required run rate was under three. 

Chamari Athapaththu led the chase.

Laura Harris hit a six and two fours in the first five legal balls she faced to make the ending of the innings virtually academic. 

Even though two more wickets went down in the 13th over, the damage had already been done. Athapaththu guided the Royals home with an unbeaten 39, Harris had 15. Joseph and Matthews were the other two batters who figured.

Royals wicketkeeper Georgia Redmayne picked up her second title in as many weeks. In England, her London Spirit defeated Matthews’ Welsh Fire for The Hundred title. Here, she combined with Matthews for the win.

Alleyne, whose eight wickets over the past week and a half were the joint second-most among all bowlers, was named player of the match. Matthews ended as player of the tournament with 147 runs, the second-highest aggregate of the competition. Her 11 wickets represented the highest tally with the ball. (TF)