West Indies Women lose second warm-up to India

West Indies Women lost their second warm-up match by 81 runs to India at Rangiora Oval, ahead of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup.

Batting first, India got a solid start from Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma, after Chinelle Henry bowled Shafali Verma in the first over without scoring. Madhana topscored with 66 off 67 deliveries, while Sharma added 51 to her name.

India posted 258 all out in their 50 overs. Cherry Ann Fraser (2-24), Hayley Matthews (2-47) and Karishma Ramharack (2-50) were the best bowlers for the West Indies.

In their reply, West Indies Women lost constant wickets, but Shemaine Campbelle and Hayley Matthews provided a 69-run resistance to the Indian bowling attack. Campbelle topscored with 63 off 81 deliveries, while Matthews added 44 from 61.

West Indies Women finished their innings on 177-9. Pooja Vastrakar finished with the best bowling figures for India, taking 3-21, followed by Meghna Singh with 2-30.

West Indies Women’s Head Coach Courtney Walsh said while the batting is a concern, there have been some good performances.

“Good to see a couple of the batters getting in some runs. It would have been nice if one of them had carried on to get a bigger score but I’ll take nothing away from them. We have to have a serious look at what we do coming into the first game but it was good to get these two practice game out the way so we can have a rethink of how we progress from here.”

The West Indies Women will play their first match of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 against home team New Zealand in the opening match of the tournament on Friday (March 4) at Bay Oval in Tauranga. (windiescricket)