For the second time in the try series, India were able to push past the West Indies on Monday (30 January) with a comfortable eight-wicket win in East London. With the finalists already in place, the West Indies had little else to do but hone themselves for the next World Cup. But her eyelashes were flat again.
They got off to a decent start and raced to her 18/0 in her first three overs. However, Deepti Sharma stepped into attack and immediately impressed, surrounding Rashada Williamson with a lovely delivery and turning after the pitch to break through the defense. Shemaine Campbell suffered a similar fate when the first ball fell for a duck when the West Indies found themselves on their hind legs.
Haley Matthews hit some limits in the next over, but his batting average dropped significantly. At halftime, the West Indies had just 46 men. Pooja Vastrakar then received a dangerous wicket from Matthews and began delivery on the 34th. India took full control of the game as it was difficult to concede. In her final over Deepti added another wicket to her name and finished with a staggering count of 3/11, with the West Indies finishing at 94/6.
That goal did not worry the Indian side, but they lost Smriti Mandhana early in the chase. Jemima Rodriguez clinched some boundaries with her overs and made her look great. Harleen Deall, who joined Jemima in the middle after Mandana’s dismissal, was unable to get started, but her dismissal did little to disrupt the Indian march.
Harmanpreet Kaur has been in her zone since her beginning, regularly pushing the boundaries in the race from just her 14 years old to her 20s. She then stole back-to-back limits from Zaida James before Jemima completed the job with 6+ overs. Unbeaten in the tournament, India will face hosts South Africa in Thursday’s final.
Brief scores: West Indies Women 94/6 in 20 overs (Hayley Matthews 34; Deepti Sharma 3/11, Pooja Vastrakar 2/19) lost to India Women 95/2 in 13.5 overs (Jemimah Rodrigues 42*, Harmanpreet Kaur 32*; Hayley Matthews 1/7) by 8 wickets