There was a thrilling finish to the historic first international tour for USA U19 Women’s side as they have had to fight very hard to take a 3-1 win in the series vs the Windward Islands Women’s U19s as the series went right down to the very final over of the week at the Arnos Vale International Stadium in St Vincent.
Watch the full tour review video and enjoy the match reports from the two final games with the full squad now safely returned home after an incredibly memorable week of international cricket.
GAME 3
A day that was threatened with showers remained clear and dry to get the game in without interruption. USA won the toss in the series for the first time and elected to bat. Laasya was captaining the team today while Geethika was rested. USA openers Tya Gonsalves and Snigdha Paul gave a brisk start and had the first 50 runs partnership for the series. USA was 51/0 at the end of six overs when Destiny Edward gave the first breakthrough to dismiss Snigdha Paul on 15. It took USA another 13 overs to get the subsequent 50 runs.
Thanks to Tya, who played an anchor role, and Laasya, who remained unbeaten on 23 to take the team to a respectable total. Jivana’s run-a-ball nine at the tail end also helped the cause. Shernia Cooper was the pick of the bowler for the Windward Islands, giving miserly 11 runs in 4 overs.
Windward Islands opened with Zaida and Skyy, who gave the islanders a brisk start before Tya, who dismissed Skyy for 15. Namiah then joined Zaida to almost take the team over the line before getting dismissed for 22. In the third match, the USA fielders lacked the sheen in fielding with a few too many misfields and a dropped opportunity featuring.
Zaida continues to shine for the Windwards, who is cut above the rest, guiding the team to the victory line in style while remaining unbeaten on 41. Once again, Extras scored a healthy 31 to stay the second-highest scorer. In contrast, Windward gave 21 towards extras. It was a day for learning for a young U19 team giving the opposition now has a chance to square the series. USA U19 Women’s team will have to regroup to bounce back in the final match with the bilateral series on the line.
GAME 4
After losing the 3rd match to the Windward Islands, the final match was a must-win match to clinch the series. The Islanders won the toss and put USA to bat as they successfully chased the target in their 3rd match. After a quick first wicket, Pooja and Disha had 62 runs partnership that gave a solid base to accelerate. The partnership saw some aggressive running between the wickets exploiting the weakness in the ground fielding of the opposition team.
It was a feisty 34 runs partnership between Tya and Mithali in just 23 balls that gave USA a respectable total of 119 to defend. Windward Islands operated with six bowlers, and it was their captain Zaida James who topped the charts by just giving 15 runs in her four overs and taking two crucial wickets.
Once again, the opposition team opened with Zaida and Skyy, who gave them an excellent start. Later, Tracy and Nesha supported Zaida, which kept them on the hunt until the last over of the match. Zaida was dropped when she was 12. The game came down the wire when the Islanders required 13 runs in their final over.
It was left to Captain Geetika to lead the charge to defend in the last over. Zaida fell in the first ball of the last over after a well-made 46, which helped the USA win the match by 3 runs. Tya and Bhumika had a good spell and gave just 27 runs off 8 overs between them. There is room for improvement in ground fielding to ensure that we can put pressure back on the quality opposition teams.
With the win in the final match of the series, the USA U19 Women’s Team clinched the historic first international series in what was a hugely memorable week for all involved.
Head Coach of USA Women’s U19s, Asif Mujtaba said, “The tour was a great success both on and off the field with all of the squad learning a huge amount about the standards and importance of international cricket. It was the perfect first taste of international cricket for many of the players to get an idea of the step up and what representing their country entails. Most pleasingly, the quality of cricket from both sides got better and better throughout the week and it was a highly competitive series that the girls did really well to win. The performance in the final game was very impressive with the series on the line and there will be plenty of further improvements in the years to come from all of our squad. I believe more of our under 19s will be representing the senior team too.
The thanks of USA Cricket and the touring party are given to all involved directly in St Vincent and everyone in the Windward Islands Cricket Board for their fantastic hospitality and a very successful tour on all fronts.
Match Results
Monday January 24 – 1st T20 @ 1pm EST – Won by 9 Wickets
Tuesday January 25 – 2nd T20 @ 12:30pm EST – Won by 7 Wickets (on DLS method)
Thursday January 27 – 3rd T20 @ 9:00am EST – Lost by 6 Wickets
Friday January 28 – 4th T20 @ 9:00am EST – Won by 3 Runs
