Stafanie Taylor gave one of the greatest performances in the history of women’s Twenty20 cricket as she piloted West Indies Women to a huge victory over Pakistan Women in the third CG Insurance T20I on Sunday.
The inspirational captain was sensational with the ball, taking a hat-trick in the final over to end with 4 for17 as Pakistan made 102. She then top-scored with 43 not out as the home team strolled to 106 for 4 off 19.1 overs to make it three wins in a row and a clean sweep of the series.
Taylor became the second West Indian woman to take a hat-trick at international level when she removed Fatima Sana, Diana Baig, and Anam Amin. The previous hat-trick for West Indies Women was by Anisa Mohammed against South Africa in 2018. Mohammed also bowled well to end with impressive figures of 3 for 24 off her four overs.
When the West Indies batted, Taylor added 41 for the fourth wicket with Chadean Nation (20) and then an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 48 with left-hander Kycia Knight, who ended on 24 not out.
Speaking to CWI Media after the match, Taylor said: “I wasn’t thinking wicket (after second consecutive wicket) to be honest … We know runs were more on the forefront and trying to restrict them not getting to 115, because I knew that the wickets coming down would be kind of hard to bat on. (Going out to bat) I wouldn’t say panic but I knew that today was the day that I had to step up … I just thought that the wicket today was try to get yourself in and once you’re in, you know that you can go big and I think that was my plan …”
West Indies Women’s head coach Courtney Walsh was overall pleased with the showing and is looking forward to developing this side into the future superstars of West Indies Women’s Cricket.
Coach Walsh told CWI Media, “The experience and exposure would have done them a world of good. It was good to get them … playing and I’m expecting a better performances in the 50-over series. It’s good to get the A-team girls playing and for women’s cricket it’s tremendous … So getting a chance now and to expose so many girls is fantastic for us because we can see what they’re like in competition.”
