An unbeaten 50 from Shamaine Campbelle coupled with a venomous spell Of pace bowling from Erva Giddings, propelled Guyana to a omfortable 45-run win over the Leewards Thursday night in the opening round of the Women’s West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional T20 tournament.
Played under lights at Providence, the MVP Campbelle, one of the more senior players in the West Indies Women’s team, crunched seven fours in her unbeaten 56-ball 64.
She shared a crucial 111-run partnership with Melanie Henry who dug in for her 34 to help Guyana end on 138-2 in 20 overs.
Giddings, another player with West Indies experience, bagged 4-15 to help reduce the Leewards to 83-9 in 20 overs. Tremayne Smartt, Plaffianna Millington and Latoya Smith claimed a wicket each.
Leewards were quickly reduced to 12-3 after crippling opening spells from seasoned pacer Giddings who had Eldora Sylvester caught by Melanie Henry for 07 before dismantling Melicia Clarke’s stumps without her scoring.
West Indies all-rounder Tremayne Smartt joined the action by bowling Shawnista Hector for one run. Another careless shot resulted in the
demise of Grace Persaud who was also knocked over by Giddings for 04.
Guyana allowed a few chances to slip by them, but spinner Smith made up for the few errors by her teammates when she bowled top-scorer Jenison Richards (18) who struck three fours in her innings.
The innings came to an end for the Leewards who lost Amanda Edwards (01), Jenison Richards and Terez Parker (14), leaving Rozel Liburd unbeaten on 13.
Earlier, the visitors used seven bowlers but only Hector (2-26) made in-roads as she removed opener Latoya Smith lbw for 02 before Campbelle and Henry made the Leeward Island bowlers toil during their huge partnership.
Campbell used her international experience to pick apart the loose bowling to bring up her half-century off just 44 balls with four boundaries while Henry continued to lend support as the 100 partnership came up in the 18th over.
Hector claimed her second wicket when Henry held out to Liburd but Campbelle and her West Indian teammate Smartt (04*) carried Guyana to a good total at the expiration of 20 overs.
