Hosts West Indies and England registered facile wins over Sri Lanka and South Africa respectively to book their semi-final spots in the ICC Women’s World T20 on Friday night.
England rode on Anya Shrubsole’s hat-trick to thrash South Africa by seven wickets in Saint Lucia before West Indies hammered the Lankans by 83 runs thanks to Hayley Mathews second fastest half-century of the tournament.
Mathews (62 runs in 36b) completed her half-century in just 25 balls and was ably supported by Deandra Dottin (49) and Stefanie Taylor (41) to help West Indies score 187/5, the third highest total in all ICC Women’s World T20s.
Sri Lanka were then bowled out for 104 runs with Chamari Athapaththu (44) waging a lone battle. Mathews also shone with the ball claiming 3 wickets for just 16 runs.
Earlier, it was a must-win game for World Cup champions England after their opening game against Sri Lanka was washed out, but a tame effort with the bat from South Africa ensured the match was never a real contest.
The usually big-hitting Lizelle Lee crawled to a 26-ball 12 before being trapped by Natalie Sciver, who ended with incredible figures of three for four from four overs, as South Africa mustered a paltry 85 all out.
Shrubsole, the star of England’s thrilling World Cup final win over India last year, wrapped up the innings by becoming only the second woman from her country to take a T20 international hat-trick after Sciver against New Zealand in 2013.
She dismissed Shabnim Ismail, Masabata Klaas and Yolani Fourie with the first three deliveries of the final over.
England openers Danni Wyatt and Tammy Beaumont put on a quickfire 55, and wicketkeeper Amy Jones’ driven four wrapped up a thumping victory with 35 balls to spare.
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