By Samuel Peters
The Leeward Islands Women’s Under 19 team stitched together one of their best games in the Cricket West Indies Rising Stars Under 19 Tournament, when they defeated Jamaica by seven runs via the Duckworth/Lewis Method to book their place in the finals against Guyana on Saturday.
Batting first, the Leewards posted their highest score of the competition, 124 for five from their 20 overs as Captain Jahzara Claxton top-scored with 29, Saivani Kambalapalli 22, and Kimberley Anthony had 20.
Brianna Palmer picked up two for 14, Aneisha Miller two for 18 and Abigail Bryce two for 33 for the Jamaicans.
In reply, Jamaica were hobbling from the start after Claxton removed the opening batter Judeen Ebanks for four runs, before her opening partner Aaliyah Weekes snapped up Jaunel Deers for two runs to leave Jamaica at six for two in two overs.
They then rebuilt their innings with a 30-run partnership between Chrishana McKenzie and Bryce before the leg spin of Kambalapalli ended it.
At the score of 55 for three, the rain intervened and the match was concluded with Jamaica finding themselves seven runs behind the required run rate, thus giving the Leeward Islands their third win of the tournament.
They will meet Guyana in the final on Saturday which is expected to be a grudge match after they lost by two runs on Tuesday to the Guyanese.
