James cameos with bat but India take victory

Tournament: Women’s Tri-Series

Opponent: India Women

Venue: Buffalo Park, East London

Result: India won by 8 wickets

Scorecard: http://bit.ly/wiwvindw

Despite a valiant 34 from captain Hayley Matthews and 21 not out from debutant Zaida James, the West Indies Women fell to an 8-wicket defeat to India Women in their final preliminary match of the Women’s Tri-Series at Buffalo Park in East London.

Batting first, West Indies posted 94/6 from their 20 overs, Matthews top-scored with 34 (34) and Zaida James added a valuable 21 (31) not out. Deepti Sharma was the pick of the Indian bowlers with figures of 4-2-11-3 followed by Pooja Vastrakar with 4-1-19-2. India reached the 95-run target in 13.5 overs, with Jemima Rodrigues on 42 (39) not out and captain Harmanpreet Kaur 32 (23) not out. Shamilia Connell finished with figures of 3-0-17-1 followed by Hayley Matthews with 2-0-7-1.

After the match captain Hayley Matthews applauded the efforts by the four U19 players who were part of the playing eleven today, saying “It was really good to see how the U19s played today. Zaida James stepped up with the bat and the energy that they brought on the field was really good. We are still missing the experience of Stafanie Taylor and Chinelle Henry and it’s been a pretty tough tournament for us when it comes to results but we have better days to look forward too.”