THE GLEANER, SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 2022 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | SPORTS B3 MOUNT MAUNGANUI, NEW ZEALAND (CMC): P LAYER-OF-THE-MATCH HAYLEY Matthews has revealed that veteran all-rounder Deandra Dottin demanded to bowl the last over, which lifted the West Indies to a thrilling threerun over New Zealand in the opening game of the ICCWomen’s World Cup yesterday. Dottin went on to snatch two wickets and pulled off a run-out in the dramatic last over, as the West Indies shocked the hosts. “Shakera Selman, I believe it was, who was meant to bowl [the last over], and Deandra pretty much just came up and said to Staf (captain Stafanie Taylor) ‘Give me the ball’,”Matthews told journalists afterwards. “We were like ‘you haven’t bowled in international cricket in about [six months] now, literally haven’t bowled to anyone in the nets since we’ve been here.’ “She just came and said ‘give me the ball’ and I think, a player like Deandra Dottin, when she says to give her the ball, you just give her the ball. It doesn’t matter if she’s bowled in a year [or] if she hasn’t.” Asked to bat first at Bay Oval, West Indies were propelled by Matthews’s superb 119 off 128 deliveries, as they piled up 259 for nine off their 50 overs. In reply, captain Sophie Devine punched 108 off 127 balls, an innings that appeared to lay the foundation for a successful New Zealand run chase. And when veteran Katie Martin slammed 44 off 47 balls at number eight, in a 40-run, eighth wicket partnership with rookie Jess Kerr (25), New Zealand were left with only six runs to win from the last over of the contest. However, lion-hearted Dottin snatched the ball for her first bowl in nearly six months, to inflict the mortal blow on the hosts’ run chase. With her second delivery, she struck Martin in front with a deadly yorker to gain a leg before wicket decision and, with her fourth delivery, claimed Kerr miscuing to Chinelle Henry at mid-off. Tottering on 256 for nine and requiring four runs from two balls, New Zealand suffered heartbreak when Hannah Rowe missed a swish at the fifth delivery and Fran Jonas charged down the pitch, attempting to steal a single. Wicketkeeper Shemaine Campbelle quickly relayed the ball to Dottin who broke the stumps at the non-striker’s end with Jonas well short of her ground, sparking celebrations in theWest Indies camp. It was Matthews’ knock which set the game up nicely for West Indies after she was elevated to partner Dottin at the top of the order. She lost Dottin (12) and Kycia Knight (5) cheaply as West Indies slumped to 39 for two in the sixth over, but remained composed to lash 16 fours and a six and underpin three successive half-century stands. LONDON (CMC): EBULLIENT REGGAE Boy Michail Antonio says he was pleased to end an eight-game goal drought at club level, even thoughWest Ham United were knocked out of the English FA Cup by his former loan club Southampton in mid-week, and hopes to start finding the net regularly again. “I’ve been saying it over the last couple of weeks that I feel like a goal’s been coming,”said the 31-yearold Hammers striker, whose cup goal – his ninth in all competitions for the club this season – was his first since scoring in a 3-2 win over London neighbours Crystal Palace on New Year’s Day. “I worked quite hard for the team against Wolves [a 1-0 victory on Sunday] and managed to get the assist, so I said it was coming – I could feel it,”he told the club’s website. “I managed to get the goal, so hopefully this goal can get me on a nice little run to finish off the season.” Attempting to put a positive spin on the 3-1 cup defeat, Antonio, who last year became West Ham’s leading all-time goalscorer, insisted the Hammers have serious ambitions of Champions League qualification. Fifth-placed West Ham sit two points below Manchester United in the race for the Premier League top four ahead of today’s trip to second-placed Liverpool. David Moyes’men are also chasing Europa League glory, with a two-legged last-16 clash against Spanish club Sevilla to come in the next two weeks. THREE GOALS “Onwards and upwards, basically; we’ve got to pick ourselves up from this and go again on Saturday,” said father-of-four Antonio, who has scored three goals in six appearances for Jamaica since making his debut last year. “Obviously we wanted to go further in this [FA Cup] competition, and now we’re out, so all we’ve got to do is concentrate on what we are in now, and that’s the Europa League and the Premier League. “We’re still going for the top four. So, with all the negatives that have happened [at Southampton], we’ve got to think about the positives for the season. “We’ve got the top-four chase still and we’re in the last 16 of the Europa League. Let’s just see what we can do with those and keep moving forwards. “One thing about us is that nothing knocks us down. We don’t stay down. We get up and we go again.” Antonio hopes goals start flowing again Jamaica and West Ham’s Michail Antonio (left) in action against Manchester City in the English Premier League. AP GENEVA (AP): RUSSIA’S EXPULSION from international football ahead of the World Cup play-offs is heading towards yet another urgent case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). And Russian sports have had some success in the court. The Russian Football Union (RFU) is ready to file a formal appeal against the joint decision by FIFA and UEFA to exclude its national and club teams from international competitions. It sets up a fascinating legal contest with time running down on the clock. In 20 days, the Russia men’s national team is scheduled to play Poland in a qualifying playoff semi-final. The play-off finals are five days later, with spots at the World Cup in Qatar at stake. Still, that timetable gives the CAS longer than it had last month to judge the case of 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva at the Beijing Olympics. Russian sport won that blockbuster at the Winter Games. How could the next one go? The Valieva verdict was ultimately an interim ruling on the fairness of banning or allowing an athlete to compete in a careerdefining competition held only every four years. That doping prosecution will be dealt with later. THE BAN Football was first to act on Monday after the International Olympic Committee urged sports governing bodies to isolate Russia for invading Ukraine. FIFA and UEFA leaders went into emergency meetings and soon suspended Russian teams, saying “football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine”. Neither published their legal reasons. Those were being written in Zurich and Nyon to send to the RFU as the basis for its appeal to CAS. The Russian football federation was not suspended and its president, Gazprom executive Alexander Dyukov, remained on the UEFA executive committee but teams were affected. Spartak Moscow was removed from the Europa League ahead of Round of 16 games on March 10 and 17. THE REASONS FIFA Statutes have since 2016 included a human rights policy which says the sport’s world governing body is “committed to respecting all internationally recognised human rights and shall strive to promote the protection of these rights”. The FIFA case was later strengthened by an International Criminal Court prosecutor now investigating allegations of war crimes in Ukraine. But it could also be problematic for sports bodies which prohibit political statements and when human rights have been breached in other FIFA member countries. “That leads us into a direction that is quite difficult to manage for FIFA and UEFA and strays far away from the story of political neutrality,” said Antoine Duval, a sports law expert at the Asser Institute in The Hague. FIFA and UEFA also have tournament rules which allow action. World Cup regulations let FIFA intervene “at its sole discretion and take whatever action is deemed necessary” in cases of “force majeure” – the legal term for uncontrollable events that include war. THE APPEAL A special element is the public refusal of several UEFA member federations to play any games against a Russian team. That includes Poland, Sweden and Czech Republic, who are in Russia’s World Cup play-off bracket. Poland captain Rober t Lewandowski, the FIFA men’s player of the year, said “we can’t pretend that nothing is happening”. Sweden’s football leader KarlErik Nilsson, a UEFA vice president, said the “illegal and deeply unjust invasion of Ukraine currently makes all football fixtures with Russia impossible”. They took a stand on morality rather than security grounds and gave FIFA a dilemma. Disciplining three members for refusing to play could give Russia a free pass to the World Cup. This is part of the Russian legal argument. On Thursday, the Russian football federation noted the FIFA-UEFA decision“was taken under pressure fromdirect rivals in the play-offs, which violated the principle of sports and the rules of fair play”. Russia ready again for urgent court case over World Cup ban A video screen displays the Ukrainian flag, during the English League Cup final between Chelsea and Liverpool at Wembley stadium in London on February 27. AP ‘Give me the ball’ MATTHEWS SCOREBOARD WEST INDIES WOMEN D. Dottin c J Kerr b Tahuhu 12 H. Matthews c Rowe b J Kerr 119 K. Knight c Jonas b J Kerr 5 *S. Taylor c wk Martin b Tahuhu 30 +S. Campbelle lbw b A Kerr 20 C. Nation c wk Martin b Tahuhu 36 C. Henry c Green b Rowe 8 A. Alleyne run out 2 S. Connell not out 4 A. Mohammed run out 11 Extras (lb3, w9) 12 TOTAL (9 wkts, 50 overs) 259 Did not bat: S Selman Fall of wickets: 1-16 (Dottin), 2-39 (Knight), 3-105 (Taylor), 4-165 (Campbelle), 5-220 (Matthews), 6-234 (Henry), 7-243 (Nation), 8-246 (Alleyne), 9-259 (Mohammed) Bowling: Tahuhu 9-0-57-3 (w3), J Kerr 10-0-43-2 (w1), Rowe 9-0-51-1 (w2), Devine 6-0-33-0 (w1), A Kerr 10-1-33-1 (w1), Jonas 6-0-39-1. NEW ZEALAND WOMEN S. Bates run out 3 *S. Devine c & b Henry 108 A. Kerr lbw b Matthews 13 A. Satterthwaite lbw b Mohammed 31 L. Tahuhu b Mohammed 6 M. Green c Taylor b Selman 9 B. Halliday c Mohammed b Matthews 3 +K. Martin lbw b Dottin 4 A4 J. Kerr c Henry b Dottin 25 H. Rowe not out 1 F. Jonas run out 0 Extras (lb5, w6, nb2) 13 TOTAL (all out, 49.5 overs) 256 Fall of wickets: 1-14 (Bates), 2-47 (Kerr), 3-123 (Satterthwaite), 4-131 (Tahuhu), 5-152 (Green), 6-162 (Halliday), 7-215 (Devine), 8-255 (Martin), 9-256 (Kerr), 10-256 (Jonas) Bowling: Connell 5-0-25-0 (w2, nb1), Henry 10-1-53-1 (w1), Alleyne 7-0-33-0 (w2), Matthews 10-1-41-2, Selman 7-0-37-1 (w1, nb1), Mohammed 10-0-60-2, Dottin 0.5-0-2-2. Result: West Indies Women won by three runs. Points: West Indies Women 2, New ZealandWomen 0 Player-of-the-Match: Hayley Matthews. Toss: New ZealandWomen. Umpires: Lauren Agenbag, Sharfuddoula; TV – Alex Wharf DOTTIN
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