Daley leads Windies to series sweep

Gros Islet (St. Lucia), Jan 21 (IANS/CMC) Left-arm spinner Shanel Daley inspired West Indies women to clean sweep the two-match Twenty20 International series against South Africa, helping them to set up a comfortable six-wicket win in the final encounter here.

Sent in, South Africa laboured to 94/6 off their 20 overs with Daley snaring 3-22 from her four overs Sunday to stifle scoring, reports CMC.

Captain Mignon du Preez top scored with 26 and wicketkeeper Trisha Chetty chipped in with 22, but the runs proved difficult to come by.

Chasing a paltry total, West Indies overcame the loss of Juliana Nero on the second ball of the innings without a run on the board, to get home with 16 balls to spare at the Beausejour Cricket Stadium.

Shemaine Campbelle struck 33 from 28 balls while Natasha McLean made a patient 23 from 40 balls at the top of the order to set the wheels in motion for a Windies victory.

Medium pacer Marizanne Kapp was outstanding grabbing three wickets for three runs off her four allotted overs.

Following on from their convincing eight-wicket win Saturday, West Indies were game from the start and Daley knocked over both openers to send South Africa tumbling to 25/4 in the seventh over.

Du Preez and Chetty then rebuilt the innings in a 35-run fifth-wicket stand to stem the flow of wickets and haul the Proteas back into the contest.

While du Preez struck three fours off 41 balls, Chetty faced 31 balls and hit one four but was busy between the wickets.

Daley broke the stand to claim her third wicket when she got du Preez caught and bowled in the 14th over and West Indies kept their feet down to ensure South Africa did not recover.

When the hosts batted, Nero’s loss was an early blow especially with the batting already weakened by the omission of Stafanie Taylor who was unwell.

And Windies were wobbling even further when left-handed opener Kyshona Knight (12) was brilliantly taken at short mid-wicket by Yolandi Potgieter at 18/2 in the fifth over.

However, Campbelle and McLean steadied the innings with a 56-run third-wicket partnership that put West Indies in sight of victory.

Daley was named both the rlayer-of-the-match and the player-of-the-series.

Brief scores: South Africa 94/6 off 20 overs (Mignon du Preez 26, Trisha Chetty 22; Shanel Daley 3/22) lost to West Indies 97/4 off 17.2 overs (Shemaine Campbelle 33, Natasha McLean 23; Marizanne Kapp 3/3).

—IANS/CMC

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IANS 2013-01-21 13:00:02