WELLINGTON: Australia routed the West Indies by seven wickets in Wellington Tuesday to maintain their perfect record at the Women’s Cricket World Cup.
The tournament’s red-hot favourites produced another ruthless display to race to a 4-0 winning record at the one-day showcase, highlighted by an unbeaten 83 from Rachael Haynes.
The win puts the six-time champions at the top of the standings with a healthy run rate, virtually guaranteeing a semi-final spot.
The West Indies have won two of their four matches and remain in with a chance of making the top four in the round-robin standings.
The West Indies won the toss and elected to bat but were stunned when Ellyse Perry took two wickets in successive balls to leave them at 4-2.
“Early wickets up front made a difference in the game that really put us in front and put them under pressure,” Australian captain Meg Lanning said.
Perry clean bowled Hayley Matthews for duck then coaxed an edge off the first ball faced by Kycia Knight.
It could have been worse but Deandra Dottin and Stephanie Taylor were both given reprieves by the third umpire.
West Indies skipper Taylor made the most of her chance by battling on to 50 but could not find any support with Shemaine Campbelle the next highest score on 20.
Perry finished on 3-22 and Ashleigh Gardner took 3-25 as the West Indies were skittled for 131 in 45.5 overs.
The paltry total was never going to be enough against the strongest batting line-up in women’s cricket, but the West Indies did well to make Australia work for 30.2 overs to reach the 132-run target.
Taylor said the West Indies needed a total of about 250 to defend but she was heartened by a solid bowling display and optimistic about her side’s chances of advancing.
“We still have three more (pool) games to go, that’s a lot of cricket,” she said. “We just have to go back to the drawing board and regroup.”
