Dottin's maiden ODI century inspires Windies to second win in Women's WC
Deandra Dottin smashed the fastest century by a West Indies batter in ODIs to secure her team a second win at the ongoing Women's World Cup, by 19 runs over Pakistan on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method at the Grace Road Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
Dottin played brilliantly to strike 12 fours and three sixes in her 79-ball 104 not out to help the West Indies to 285 for four from its 50 overs.
Rain delayed the start of the Pakistan innings, which was set a revised target of 245 in 38 overs. Javeria Wadood made a gutsy half-century but Pakistan was unable to keep ahead of the run-rate as another bout of rain stopped play for the day with its score at 117 for three in 24 overs.
"I am very pleased. We had been struggling to get some runs so it's really good to be able to do that," said West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor, who made 90.
"It's about trying to enjoy my batting, I haven't been doing that in my past games and I said to Deandra to keep her eyes on it and try and play. When you get yourself in then you can play your shots. I felt really good out there, concentration was key for me and when I got out I didn't see that happening."
"It's very important to lead from the front, I haven't scored many runs and we've struggled and I know I am the anchor where the team is concerned. It's good to be back scoring runs," she added.
West Indies was put in and lost Hayley Matthews in just the first over, offering a return catch to Asmavia Iqbal but Chedean Nation and Taylor steadied a platform en route to its highest score of the tournament.
Taylor got her side's first fifty, making 90 from 107 balls, but it was Dottin who came to the fore in their 87-run partnership.
She played beautifully, accelerating from seven off 16 balls to pepper the boundary as she turned on the style late in the innings.
And it was to result in her maiden ODI century with a glorious six over long-on, showing her emotion upon reaching the landmark by throwing her bat away, as her last 47 runs came in just 15 balls.
Pakistan started on the front foot in its adjusted chase of 245, though Ayesha Zafar fell miscuing a lob off Ekeira Peters to bring Javeria and Nahida Khan together.
They put on 80 for the second wicket, Javeria in particular looking in good touch with 58 from 72 balls, though the run-rate was always just out of reach.
That proved vital when Nahida was bowled by Anisa Mohammed, and when the rain fell as Iram Javed spooned a catch to Nation - again off Mohammed - Pakistan was short of the DLS target to stay winless in the competition.
"Deandra has shots all over the wicket, it's a challenge bowling to her and she played very well," said Pakistan captain Sana Mir.
"The batting has not been up to the mark so I'm very happy Javeria got that 50, it's very important that we score runs there and I know the potential of these girls. Javeria and Neveda were very comfortable while they were batting, but the fielding needs to improve. We have to have better fielding on the boundaries."
"When players like Stafanie and Deandra hit, the fielder was hardly able to move, they put so much power and that's something we want to look to be able to do, they punished the bad balls well," she added.
-ANI
