Legspinner Afy Fletcher has grabbed 3-22 and Qiana Joseph made a rapid 31 off 18 balls to secure a comfortable six-wicket win for the West Indies over Scotland with 50 balls remaining in their T20 World Cup clash in Dubai.
Scotland slumped to a second successive defeat on Sunday after suffering a 16-run loss to Bangladesh in their group B opener, while West Indies got their tournament back on track after their 10-wicket drubbing by South Africa
Scotland were limited to 8-99 as the West Indies raced to victory inside 12 overs despite the Scots’ spinner Olivia Bell impressing with 2-18 off her three overs.
Scotland won the toss and elected to bat first but were soon in trouble at 2-13 against the 2016 champions, as openers Saskia Horley and Sarah Bryce fell cheaply.
Although Ailsa Lister, who was dropped three times as she made 26, and captain Kathryn Bryce (25) tried to give the innings some momentum, that was checked when Fletcher dismissed Lister and Priyanaz Chatterji with successive balls in the 13th over.
Fletcher also sent back Scotland’s skipper and while Lorna Jack-Brown (11) and Darcey Carter (14no) edged Scotland up towards 100, their total never looked like being a competitive one.
But Scotland gave themselves hope as Rachel Slater dismissed West Indies opener Stafanie Taylor in the first over of the reply and Chatterji sent back captain Hayley Matthews for eight inside the powerplay.
But Joseph tore back the momentum for the West Indies and Deandra Dottin finished off the job with an unbeaten 28 off just 15 balls with two fours and two sixes – one of which was a huge shot over midwicket for the winning runs.
Scotland’s next group B match is on Wednesday against South Africa, who were runners-up to Australia in last year’s tournament on home soil.
“It was a pretty good performance in the field, we felt in the game, but with their firepower it was going to be tricky,” Scotland captain Bryce said.
“We didn’t get a good start, and did not get any momentum in the middle, the slow outfield meant boundaries were hard. 120 would have been a good score, but with a low total like that you have to take every opportunity.
“It is a difficult stage to be trying things out out there, but it is a big learning curve taking this forward.”
The comprehensive win sees the West Indies boost their net run-rate as they prepare to face Bangladesh on Thursday.
“We did pretty well, we limited the boundary balls as much as possible. There are areas we can still improve on, but the bowlers were able to bowl to their fields today,” Matthews said.
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