The defending champions of the Women’s World T20 tournament, West Indies will lock horns with Sri Lanka in their third group match at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in St Lucia at 20:00h.
Sri Lanka have knocked out Bangladesh in their recent match winning by 25 runs in a low-scoring match while West Indies have already registered two wins off some brilliant bowling and fielding performances.
The pitch at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium has looked a brilliant batting surface to the naked eye, but it is a deceiving look, since batters have had difficulties scoring runs. In four encounters at St Lucia, only two teams have got past the 100-run mark: South Africa with 102 while chasing and West Indies 107 batting first.
However, West Indies and Bangladesh are the only teams in Group A that played in Guyana, but both teams have not made significant contributions with the bat in contrast to the other top teams in the tournament. West Indies are one win away from booking a place in the semi-finals, but their batters must immediately step up to the task and gather momentum moving to Antigua for the final leg of the tournament starting Thursday, November 22.
Kaciya Knight has been the only shining light with the bat for the West Indies with 64 runs in two innings. In the bowling department, West Indies were extraordinary: Deandra Dottin and Stafanie Taylor bowled match-winning spells in both matches.
Sri Lanka will look to their captain, Chamari Athapaththu to lead them to victory and S Siriwardene, who copped the Player of the Match award in their last match against Bangladesh. Similarly, Sri Lanka batters would be hoping to put in some brilliant batting performance in the important clash against West Indies. (Brandon Corlette)
