The USA moved to the top of the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Women’s U19 Rising Stars T20 Championships despite having their match against Barbados abandoned due to rain on Friday.
At the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Barbados won the toss and chose to bat first against the USA in a match reduced to seven overs per team.
However, after Barbados fell to 16 for 3 in the 4th over, the rains came again ending any possibility of the match concluding.
The USA, with the two points for the draw, moved up to 10 points in first place, above inactive Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, who were both on eight points.
USA Under 19 Women with another crushing Wednesday in Trinidad, defeating Windward Islands U19 by 8 wickets.
USA restricted them to 105 for 5 before chasing the target with 14 balls to spare.
An 83-run second-wicket partnership between Lisa Ramjit and Laasya Mullapudi took USA most of the way.
Mullapudi top-scored with 37 off 46 balls including six boundaries. Ramjit stayed to the end to finish 36 not out off 49 balls.
Meanwhile, Former West Indies batter Shivnarine Chanderpaul had been appointed by USA Cricket as the head coach of the Women’s national side as well as their U19 team.
Chanderpaul’s tenure – for one and a half years until the end of 2023 – begins on Sunday (July 3) as the U19 side gear up for the Under-19 T20 Championship, in Trinidad and Tobago, from July 5.
After the match defeating Windward Islands, Chanderpaul spoke to media.
“Well, obviously there’s a lot of cricket here, and there’s much time for us to do training and practice sessions, but trying to sharpen up in our skills, making sure that we get better throughout the tournament, and hopefully, we can play some more competitive cricket and better crickets the tournament going on.”
Chanderpaul brings some coaching experience with him – he has served as the batting consultant of the West Indies U19 side and is currently the head coach of the Jamaica Tallawahs in the CPL.
“I am excited to have been appointed as the Head Coach of the USA National Women’s Team and Women’s Under 19 Team. The Women’s game is something I am a huge advocate of, and I have followed the progress of the USA Women’s National team with keen interest,” Chanderpaul said following his appointment.
“I’ve enjoyed being involved in American cricket over the years as a resident of Orlando, so to be given this opportunity to become the Head Coach for USA Cricket is an incredible one. I’m really looking forward to using my 20+ years of international cricket and my recent coaching experiences, to help the women’s teams progress to World Cups in years to come, particularly the inaugural Under 19 Cricket World Cup in January.”
USA Cricket Operations director Richard Done expressed his delight at the coup, given Chanderpaul’s rich experience as an international player – a career spanning 21 years.
“We are thrilled to have attracted someone of Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s caliber to work with both the Women’s Senior and U19 Teams as Women’s Head Coach, and lead them onto the global stage,” Done said. “We have an exciting crop of young cricketers, of which many are already making their mark at senior level. Combining the two roles will provide coaching consistency across teams for those players as they develop.”
“Apart from his distinguished playing career of 454 Test, ODI, and T20I matches, and captaining West Indies, Shivnarine comes to USA Cricket with head coach experience in the CPL, and having worked closely with both male and female elite players in the West Indies, and internationally.
“This depth of experience will be invaluable, not only in his primary role, but to the development of the wider high-performance player and coaching pathways in the USA. Shivnarine’s passion for the Women’s game and long-standing links with American cricket made him the stand-out candidate from the recruitment process that saw much interest,” Done added.