KINGSTOWN, St Vincent: Trinidad and Tobago will meet St Vincent and the Grenadines in the final of the West Indies Cricket Board’s Women’s 50-Over League after hard-fought victories yesterday. The Vincentians defeated Jamaica by 31 runs at Arnos Vale Playing Field 2, while the Trinis beat Barbados by 28 runs at Arnos Vale Playing Field 1.
The final will be played tomorrow at 10:00 h (09:00 h Jamaica Time) The third place play-off between Barbados and Jamaica will be at Arnos Vale 2 at the same time.
Pamela Lavine, the experienced Barbadian batter made a superb century but it was not enough to take her team to victory.
She made 107, with ten boundaries and a big six, out of 191-5 off 50 overs in reply to Trinidad and Tobago’s 219-6. It was her second century at regional level, following her 113 against Jamaica last year and she got solid support from Danielle Small with 26.
Earlier in the day, Britney Cooper, last year’s MVP, was the star batter for the defending champions. She withstood the early pressure and then blossomed to top score with 62. Left-hander Stacy-Ann King also played well with 54, while captain Anisa Mohammed gave the innings a final push with 19 not out.
Lavine said: “It was just one of those days … you get a hundred and you lose the match. I tried my best and gave it my all. It feels good to get the century, but sometimes when you don’t win it could be seen as somewhat insignificant.
She added: “We played well at various stages in the match. We lost some crucial wickets but we still kept on fighting all the way. We never gave up and that was good to see. They bowled well in the last 10 overs and that left us with too much to do.”
In the other semi-final, the home side made just 128 off their 50 overs but bounced back to bowl out the highly-fancied Jamaica for just 97. The star player for the home side was Sheree-Ann John, who made a brave 24 not out and then took 2-18 from five probing overs, to take the Player-of-the-Match award.
Cordel Jack, the St Vincent and the Grenadines captain said she was proud of her side’s effort and also praised John for her outstanding performance. “It’s a really, really good feeling to win the match and beat Jamaica, one of the best team in the Caribbean. It’s a wonderful feeling. We played hard and we have made it to the final. Congrats to the girls, but we have one more big game to go. I knew my players were capable of doing the job,” she said.
“Sheree-Ann deserves a lot of credit. She is having a really good tournament, and today she batted really well and bowled a good spell. We lost some early wickets but she gave us a score we could defend. The crowd today was excellent and the good thing was that they were not just supporting the St Vincent and the Grenadines team, but they are supporting the game of cricket as well and this is great to see.”
John picked up the key wicket of Stafanie Taylor, the world-rated Jamaica captain, who was caught behind for 14 as the visitors slipped to 52-6 at one stage. Slow bowler Samantha Lynch came on late in the innings and mopped up the tail with 3-12 from 5.4 overs, while captain Jack chipped in with 2-16 from 10 overs to slow the scoring rate.
Left-hander Shanel Daley tried to repair the damage by spanking 36 but she got little support. The next best score was 21 from Karla Cohen at the bottom of the order. Earlier in the match Jamaica bowlers Vanessa Watts took 3-27, Chadean Nation took 3-16 and Daley grabbed 2-15 to give their side a great chance of victory.
In the play-off match at Stubbs, Grenada fell from 51-1 in the 16th over to be all out for 89 off 29.3 overs. St Lucia replied with 90-6 to win by four wickets. The other play-off match at Victoria Park between Dominica and Guyana was not played due to a waterlogged outfield.