• Stafanie Taylor claims career-best figures to take defending champions to top of Group A;
• Siriwardene’s all-round skill lead Sri Lanka to first points in the tournament.
• The Online Media Zone is a one-stop shop for the tournament that includes extensive text coverage, audio clips and roundups, unedited videos and complete transcripts of post-match press conferences, daily stats packs and a wide selection of images, all for free editorial use giving credit to ICC

The Windies engineered a dramatic collapse in the South Africa batting to snatch what seemed at one stage like an unlikely win at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground in Gros Islet. Much to the delight of the large crowd that had gathered under lights, Stafanie Taylor picked up four wickets, after Shabnim Ismail’s burst had left the home team on the back foot.

In the earlier game, Bangladesh had yet another poor outing with the bat, bowled out for 72 chasing Sri Lanka’s total of 97 for seven, which was propped up on Shashikala Siriwardene’s 31. Sri Lanka claimed their first win in the tournament in the process.

Windies v South Africa:

The Windies maintained their spotless record against South Africa in ICC Women’s World T20s, applying sustained pressure with the ball and in the field to steal a 31-run win. Their winning margin was bloated by a late collapse that saw South Africa lose their last five wickets for just one run.

South Africa were looking steady at 41 for 1 after 10 overs chasing the Windies total of 107, when two outstanding pieces of fielding –including one direct hit from point by Deandra Dotttin- brought the holders back into the game. Taylor then brought herself on and bowled her four overs on the trot, taking a wicket in each of them. From 48 for one, South Africa slipped to 64 for five through a combination of pressure and panic, eventually bowled out for 76.

Taylor registered career best figures of 4 for 12, claiming Player of the Match, a medal that seemed headed into Shabnim Ismail’s pocket for a brilliant opening spell. Ismail (3 for twelve) removed the Windies’ most destructive batters in her first twelve balls, claiming her second consecutive three-wicket haul. A 45-run partnership between Kycia Knight (32) and Natasha McLean (28) rescued the Windies, giving them something to defend.

Windies captain and Player of the Match Stafanie Taylor said: “Deandra, I think her position at point, backward point is pretty much fixed. When she’s not bowling, that’s where she’s supposed to go, because she’s magnificent. She’s fantastic. She gets around pretty quickly.

“And batters fear her when she has the ball in her hand or when she’s going towards the ball. No one wants to take a run. So, when Dane got run out, I think she was caught off-guard, but it turned the match in our favour.”

South Africa captain Dane van Neikerk said: “We’ve got a very good batting lineup, from 1 to 8, (anyone) can take the game away from you at any moment. Lizelle and Laura, I felt they batted a bit slow. You know, you need 5 an over for 20 overs, so it kind of spells it out for you there.

“And I think we got ourselves into trouble quite early. And I think we played catch up. There were a lot of very soft dismissals.”

Sri Lanka v Bangladesh:

Bangladesh missed out on their best chance of ensuring automatic qualification for the next edition of the tournament as their batting disintegrated in a chase of 98. Only two batters made it into double figures, as the batters undid some fine work from the bowlers, in particular Jahanara Alam.

Shashikala Siriwardene took two wickets for Sri Lanka after top scoring with the bat, and skipper Chamari Athapaththu took three after failing. But the dents in Bangladesh’s chase were made by the left arm swing of Udeshika Prabhodani, who took two wickets in her first over. Then the spinners shared the spoils, bowling 75 dots in the innings as Bangladesh never recovered from those early blows.

Earlier, Jahanara Alam’s three wickets were the highlight of a bowling effort that seemed to have done enough. Bangladesh strangled the Sri Lanka top order, until a 31-run partnership off 20 balls between Siriwardene and Nilakshi de Silva took them close to a hundred. A slow outfield and helpful conditions for the bowlers meant that those runs were enough.

Bangladesh’s Jahanara Alam said: “We had a goal that we don’t want to play any more qualifiers, for the World T20. We had a goal also that we want to play semifinals, but we lost that after we played this game. But we have still chance to increase our ranking against South Africa if we win that game.”

Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu said: “We all know they have a good bowling attack, good spinners, and the conditions are not good for the batters. So we tried to get 120, but unfortunately we lost a couple wickets early, so we reset our goal.

“Then we decided 100 is good score. We trust our bowlers, we have a good bowling attack. So finally we won.”

Scores in brief:

Sri Lanka defeated Bangladesh by 25 runs at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground at Gros Islet, St. Lucia

Sri Lanka: 97-7, 20 overs (Shashikala Siriwardene 31; Jahanara Alam 3-21)

Bangladesh: 72 all out in 20 overs (Nigar Sulatana 20; Chamari Athapaththu 3-17, Udeshika Prabhodani 2-6, Shashikala Siriwardene 2-10)

Player of the match:  Shashikala Siriwardene

Windies defeated South Africa by 31 runs at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground at Gros Islet, St. Lucia

Windies: 107-7, 20 overs (Kycia Knight 32, Natasha McLean 28; Shabnim Ismail 3-12, Dane van Neikerk 2-8)

South Africa: 76 all out in 18.4 overs (Marizanne Kapp 26, Lizelle Lee 24; Stafanie Taylor 4-12)

Player of the match:  Stafanie Taylor

Thursday’s fixtures:

India v Ireland, Georgetown, Guyana (Group B)

New Zealand v Pakistan, Georgetown, Guyana (Group B)

Complete fixtures and timings can be found here

-ICC