U-19 girls cricket: T&T eye semi-finals but Barbados stumble

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad,  CMC – Hosts Trinidad and Tobago took a giant step towards the semi-finals with a pair of convincing wins here Thursday but reigning champions Barbados stumbled, on the opening day of the Regional Girls’ Under-19 Invitational Twenty20 Championship.

In their morning game at Gilbert Park, T&T trounced Windward Islands by ten wickets and then followed up by defeating Guyana by four wickets in their afternoon match at the same venue.

Barbados were not as fortunate. While they cruised past Guyana by eight wickets in their opening game at the National Cricket Centre, they suffered a surprise eight-wicket defeat to Windwards in their afternoon game.

T&T have eight points heading into the third and final round on Friday while Barbados and Windwards both have four points.

Guyana are yet to register a point after losing both their games.

West Indies Women opener Hayley Matthews stamped her dominance on the tournament with an unbeaten 55 as she propelled her side to victory over Guyana.

Chasing 70 for victory, Barbados reached their target in the 11th over, with skipper Matthews the only batsman to make it into double figures.

She had earlier opened the bowling and taken three for ten with her off-spin to help limit Guyana to 69 for nine from their 20 overs.