WI women thrash Munroe Road

THE West Indies women cricketers created history by whipping National Cricket League Division Two club Joe Public Munroe Road in their first feature match in preparation for the Women World Cup in South Africa next month. The WI women are currently engaged in a ten-day training camp at the Sir Frank Worrell Development Centre in Balmain. Yesterday’s match was the first since they have been together. Two other previous training camps were affected by inclement weather and forced them to work out at the Angostura Indoor Nets.

However, there have been excellent weather conditions on this penultimate camp and coach Ann Browne-John was overjoyed with her girls’ performance yesterday at Munroe Road, Cunupia. They won the low-scoring match by four wickets but the result, Brown-John said, augurs well for their confidence which has been boosted with the victory over an established club team. Joe Public Munroe have been playing against the NCL Division One and Two teams in the Carib Sunday League and Carib Shield matches.

The shock defeat has put the Monroe Road boys in the unenviable position of trying to explain how they were humbled by the fairer sex on their own home ground. Batting first, Munroe Road were skittled out for a meager 81 off 32.4 overs. Skipper Gopaul Nanan topscored with 23 and his knock included four fours. The WI women new-ball bowlers Phillipa Thomas and Debbie Ann Lewis, both right-arm medium pacers, knocked over their male counterparts in dramatic fashion with a steady procession from the pavilion to the middle and back. Thomas grabbed three wickets for 19 runs from six overs while Lewis captured two for 14 from a similar amount of overs.

Envis Williams, bowling rightarm slow medium, also proved her worth as she picked up two wickets for eight runs off seven overs. Number three batswoman Juliana Nero collared the Joe Public Munroe Road bowlers and slammed three fours as she raced to 20 and sparked the women to 83 for six wickets off 32.2 overs. The WI women will play reigning NCL Division One champions FCB Clarke Road tomorrow at Wilson Road. And then tackle Carapichaima Senior Comprehensive on Friday at Balmain. An elated Browne-John described her team’s victory as “a great morale-booster”.

The entire team is excited with what was accomplished today. “The bowling and fielding was exceptional. We started well when we batted but just lost a couple of extra wickets at the end. But we are all very happy to have won this match. It will make the players train even harder.” The coach was very pleased with the progress made at the camp. “We have been working extremely hard on all aspects of the match. Everybody is determined to improve and wants to do well. The team spirit is very high. And we are now hoping that we can get in all the other two matches planned for this week.”