West Indies women beat Pakistan in fifth T20I

West Indies women’s cricket team defeated Pakistan by nine wickets in the final T20I of the five-match series in a one-sided encounter at the National Bank Stadium, Karachi, on Friday.

West Indies, led by Hayley Matthews, were the dominant side throughout their tour of Pakistan as after clinching the three-match ODI series first, they continued their superiority and won the T20I series 4-1.

The visitors won the first three matches of the series without much trouble. However, the home side made a comeback in the fourth T20I as they were able to register an eight-wicket win over their opponents. The Nida Dar-led unit had the chance to end the series on a positive note by winning the final T20I but they failed.

Chasing the target of 135, West Indies were met with a blow in the powerplay as Sadia Iqbal removed Rashada Williams in the fifth over but the home side couldn’t get much to celebrate after that as Matthews and Shemaine Campbelle took control of the match.

Matthews and Campbelle formed an astonishing 103-run stand. The Pakistani bowlers looked clueless and helpless in front of the two. The former lost his wicket just moments before her side chased down the target.

Matthews scored 78 off 59 with the help of a whopping 11 boundaries while Campbelle contributed 33 runs.

Batting first, Pakistan’s top-order rose to the occasion as the trio of Ayesha Zafar, Sidra Ameen and Muneeba Ali were the top scorers of their side.

Ayesha scored 22 off 16, Sidra contributed 48 on 52 balls as she missed out on a well-deserving half-century by just two runs while Muneeba amassed 25 runs before getting clean bowled by Afy Fletcher.

Other than these three, only Rameen Shamim (16 on 11) scored in double digits as rest of the batters failed miserably with the bat.

Fletcher bagged three, Qiana Joseph got two while Aaliyah Alleyne and Matthews picked one wicket each.