GEORGE­TOWN– Bar­ba­dos ex­tend­ed their per­fect start to their ti­tle de­fence with a nine-wick­et crush­ing of Lee­ward Is­lands in the sec­ond round of the Women’s T20 Blaze in Guyana on Thurs­day.

In one of on­ly two match­es played at the Guyana Na­tion­al Sta­di­um af­ter rain forced a com­plete aban­don­ment of Guyana’s con­test with Trinidad and To­ba­go, Bar­ba­dos need­ed on­ly 40 de­liv­er­ies to eas­i­ly chase down a pal­try 61, and pull off the com­pre­hen­sive vic­to­ry.

Bar­ba­dos beat Guyana by sev­en runs in Tues­day’s open­er at the same venue.

Three wick­et hauls from cap­tain and off-spin­ning all-rounder Hay­ley Matthews (3-9) and seam­er Shani­ka Bruce (3-15) sent Lee­wards crash­ing to 60 all out in the penul­ti­mate over.

Ros­alie Dolabaille, bat­ting at num­ber three, top-scored with an un­beat­en 14 from 44 balls and num­ber nine Tiffany Thor­pe (10) was the on­ly oth­er bats­man to reach dou­ble fig­ures.

In re­ply, Matthews stroked an un­beat­en 23 off 18 balls with three fours as Bar­ba­dos raced to their tar­get.

The loss was the sec­ond for Lee­ward Is­lands who went down by four wick­ets to Wind­ward Is­lands in their open­er.

Ja­maica al­so won their sec­ond on the trot, brush­ing aside Wind­wards by 25 runs af­ter eas­i­ly de­fend­ing their own mod­est to­tal of 91.

West In­dies bats­man Rasha­da Williams top-scored with 25 off 42 balls while fel­low in­ter­na­tion­al team­mates Stafanie Tay­lor (18), Che­nille Hen­ry (12) and Chedean Na­tion (10) al­so reached dou­ble fig­ures but failed to car­ry on.

Williams put on 26 for the sec­ond wick­et with Tay­lor and a fur­ther 28 for the third with Na­tion but Ja­maica col­lapsed from 67 for two in the 14th over, los­ing their last eight wick­ets for 24 runs.

Left-arm seam­er Jan­nil­lea Glas­gow wrecked the in­nings with four for 21 while cap­tain and leg-spin­ner Afy Fletch­er picked up two for 20.

Fletch­er then led with the bat for Wind­wards but her top score of 20 was not enough as the in­nings plunged to 66 all out in the 17th over.

Seam­er Jo­di­an Mor­gan spear­head­ed Ja­maica’s at­tack with three for 15 while off-spin­ners Vanes­sa Watts (2-5) and Tay­lor (2-17) sup­port­ed with two wick­ets apiece.

The third round of match­es are card­ed for Sat­ur­day.

CMC

Scores:

LEE­WARD IS­LANDS 60 off 18.2 overs (Hay­ley Matthews 3-9, Shani­ka Bruce 3-15) lost to BAR­BA­DOS 61 for one off 6.4 overs (Hay­ley Matthews 23 not out) by nine wick­ets

JA­MAICA 91 off 19.3 overs (Rasha­da Williams 25; Jan­nil­lea Glas­gow 4-21, Afy Fletch­er 2-20) beat WIND­WARD IS­LANDS 66 off 16.4 overs (Afy Fletch­er 20; Jo­di­an Mor­gan 3-15, Vanes­sa Watts 2-5, Stafanie Tay­lor 2-17) by 25 runs

GUYANA vs T&T – Aban­doned (rain)

Sat­ur­day match­es (Round 3):

Bar­ba­dos vs Wind­ward Is­lands

Ja­maica vs Guyana

Lee­ward Is­lands vs T&T