CWI Rising Stars Women’s U19: Windward Islands sneak past Guyana in nail-biter

Guyana’s Under-19 Women suffered their first loss of the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Rising Stars Women’s T20 Championship on Thursday, when they were administered a 2-wicket defeat at the hands of their Windward Islands counterparts.
Similar to their last few matches, Guyana won the toss and opted to bat first at the Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Ground in St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, but another lacklustre display with the bat left the Guyanese defending 60 runs.
There was no double-digit score on the Guyanese scoresheet, and the top scores of 8 from 19 and 13 balls respectively came off the bat of Shonette Belgrave and Nyia Latchman respectively. The next-best score of 7 from 9 came off the bat of Denellie Lindee, while Trisha Hardat added 6 from 10 down the order as the Guyanese struggled in the conditions.

What was a tremendous help to their cause, however, was the 13 extras bowled by the Windwards ladies to get the Guyanese to 60 all-out in 18 overs.
Nesha Alexander was the star on show for the Windwards, claiming 4-8 in 4 overs. Selena Ross was also superb in taking 3-8 from 3 overs.
For the Windwards ladies, the chase also got off to a rocky start, with Guyana’s Trisha Hardat and Latchman picking up 4 early wickets. Latchman had Cian Felix bowled for a duck in 6 balls, and followed up by removing West Indies Women’s international player Zaida James via the lbw route for 3 runs. Hardat then took the wickets of Natalia Philip and Amiah Gilbert to leave the Windwards reeling at 12-5 in 7 overs.
However, Denella Creese was the hero for the Windwards outfit. Standing up to the bowling with a 36-ball 25, she almost led her team to victory. In dramatic fashion, Creese was run out in the second ball of the 19th over with her team needing just one more run for victory.
Things could have been different for the Guyanese, had not there been a dropped catch in the 17th over that could have resulted in the earlier demise of Creese.
Despite Creese being run out in the 19th over, the Windwards ladies got to their target of 61 in 18.3 overs and for the loss of 8 wickets.
Latchman was the pick of the Guyanese bowlers, claiming 2-6 in 4 overs inclusive of 2 maidens, while Trisha Hardat surprisingly bowled only 2 overs but leaked 2 runs and took as many wickets.
In spite of Thursday’s loss, Guyana’s U19 Women will meet the Leeward Islands U19 Women in the Rising Stars Championship final on Saturday, July 13, at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy.