LA­HORE, Pak­istan – West In­dies Women fell heart­break­ing­ly short of qual­i­fy­ing for the 2025 ICC Women’s World Cup lat­er this year de­spite a hero­ic per­for­mance against Thai­land in their fi­nal match of the World Cup Qual­i­fiers on Sat­ur­day.

Need­ing to score 167 in 10.1 overs to boost their net run rate (NRR) above Bangladesh Women’s af­ter dis­miss­ing Thai­land for 166 in 46.1 overs, the West In­dies Women fin­ished on 168 for four off 10.5 overs – four balls too many.

The re­sult left West In­dies Women and Bangladesh Women tied on six points, but Bangladesh Women claimed the sec­ond and fi­nal qual­i­fy­ing spot with a NRR of 0.639, slight­ly bet­ter than the West In­dies’ NRR of 0.626.

It will be a tough pill to swal­low for the re­gion­al side, who will feel they al­lowed Thai­land to score 30 runs too many.

They came in­to the match know­ing that on­ly a mas­sive vic­to­ry over Thai­land, cou­pled with a Bangladesh loss to Pak­istan would give them a chance of qual­i­fy­ing.

Pak­istan thumped Bangladesh by sev­en wick­ets in the day’s open­ing match to give them hope be­fore skip­per Hay­ley Matthews won a cru­cial toss and sent Thai­land in to bat at the Gaddafi Sta­di­um.

Thai­land got a de­cent start thanks to open­ers Nat­taya Boochatham (29) and Chani­da Sut­thiru­ang, who made 21, and along with Nan­na­p­at Kon­charoenkai saw them progress to 64 for one.

How­ev­er, once Boochatham was bowled by Aliyah Al­leyne, spin­ner Afy Fletch­er took four quick wick­ets to see them col­lapse to 85 for six.

West In­dies would have been hop­ing to wrap up the in­nings soon af­ter, but Natthakan Chan­tham scored a fight­ing half cen­tu­ry to ral­ly the low­er or­der.

Chan­tam hit 66 from 98 balls be­fore she was last out, as Thai­land’s last four wick­ets added 81 runs to frus­trate the Windies.

Fletch­er end­ed with 4-20, while Al­leyne (3-41) and Ash­mi­ni Mu­nis­ar (2-15) lent good sup­port.

Faced with the her­culean task of scor­ing at al­most 17 runs an over, West In­dies Women got a whirl­wind start from Matthews and Joseph.

Af­ter scor­ing just nine runs from the open­ing over bowled by Phan­ni­ta Maya, Matthews then thumped off­spin­ner Nat­taya Boochatham for a six and two fours in the next over that yield­ed 17 runs.

The car­nage con­tin­ued with Matthews scor­ing 19 runs off the next over bowled by Maya be­fore Joseph joined in on the act by clob­ber­ing Boochatham for 18 runs as the West In­dies sped to 63 with­out loss af­ter four overs.

Matthews then brought up her half cen­tu­ry in 21 balls when she hit medi­um pac­er Chani­da Sut­thiru­ang for three bound­aries in the fifth over.

Thai­land end­ed the part­ner­ship when Thipatcha Put­tha­wong dis­missed Joseph for 26 with the score on 81, but the Windies con­tin­ued to mo­tor along.

But they lost the cru­cial wick­et of Matthews for 70 off 29 balls, which con­tained 11 fours and two six­es, to leave them 105 for two at the end of sev­en overs.

She­maine Camp­belle and Chinelle Hen­ry shared a 41-run part­ner­ship off 16 balls be­fore the for­mer was run out for nine, leav­ing the West In­dies 146 for three off 9.4 overs and re­quir­ing 21 runs from three balls.

The West In­dies still had an op­por­tu­ni­ty to ad­vance, but they need­ed to tie the score and then hit a six off the last ball of the 10th over.

How­ev­er, Stafanie Tay­lor hit a six with the score on 162 to end the con­test and seal the West In­dies’ fate.

Sum­marise Scores

THAI­LAND WOMEN 166 in 46.1 overs (Natthakan Chan­tham 66, Nat­taya Boochatham 29, Chani­da Sut­thiru­ang 21, Nan­na­p­at Kon­charoenkai 14; Afy Fletch­er 4-20, Aaliyah Al­leyne 3-41, Ash­mi­ni Mu­nis­ar 2-15) vs WEST IN­DIES WOMEN 168-4 in 10.5 overs (Hay­ley Matthews 70, Chinelle Hen­ry 48, Qiana Joseph 26).

(CMC)