Fifty in Twenty Balls: Eboni Brathwaite's Six Sixes Win West Indies Women the Series in Harare

For twelve overs, this looked like a different series. Zimbabwe Women, who had been squeezed to 97 for 9 two days earlier, came out at Takashinga Sports Club and batted with real composure: 35 without loss in the powerplay, 61 for 1 at the drinks break, 78 for 1 in the 13th over. Beloved Biza and Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano were settled, and a total in the 130s or beyond was there to be had.

Then Jahzara Claxton took two wickets in two balls, the innings lost its shape, and Eboni Brathwaite turned the chase into something closer to a demolition. Zimbabwe Women 106 for 7. West Indies Women 108 for 2 in 9.1 overs. West Indies Women won by 8 wickets with 65 balls remaining, and with a 2-0 lead in a three-match series, the T20Is are theirs with a game still to play. Brathwaite, 57 from 23 balls, was Player of the Match.

It is only fair to begin with what Zimbabwe Women got right, because it was a good deal. Kelis Ndhlovu and Biza saw off the powerplay without losing a wicket — 35 for 0, a clean start after the 97 for 9 of the series opener. Ndhlovu hit Zimbabwe Women's only six of the day before she was trapped lbw by Afy Fletcher at 46 in the ninth over. Biza and Mugeri-Tiripano then added 32 for the second wicket and took the side to 61 for 1 at the halfway mark. For a team that had been bowled into a corner two days earlier, this was progress you could see.

What happened next was the familiar part. In the 13th over Claxton had Biza caught behind by the wicketkeeper Mangru for a 35-ball 35, and with the very next ball trapped Christine Mutasa lbw for a first-ball duck. From 78 for 1, Zimbabwe Women scored 28 more runs in the last seven and a half overs and lost six wickets doing it. Two of those were run-outs, including Mugeri-Tiripano for 25, and the hundred did not come up until the 19th over. Claxton came back to take the final wicket with the last ball of the innings, three wickets from her two overs.

The West Indies bowling was again shared out. Seven bowlers were used. Karishma Ramharack, who took 3 for 17 in the first match, went wicketless for 26 this time, but nobody else conceded more than 19. Chinelle Henry's two overs cost 8, Stafanie Taylor's three cost 12 with a wicket. There was nothing extravagant about any of it — just a steady tightening once the first breakthrough came, which was enough.

A target of 107 is the kind you can approach with patience. Brathwaite chose not to. West Indies Women passed fifty in the fourth over, off 26 balls, and Brathwaite reached her own fifty from 20 balls with three fours and five sixes. Her opening partner Claxton made 4 from 10 before Kudzai Chigora bowled her at 27 for 1 in the third over, which tells you exactly who was doing the scoring: Brathwaite had 57 of the first 69 runs when she was finally caught by Mugeri-Tiripano off Mutasa on the second-last ball of the powerplay.

By then West Indies Women were 69 for 2 and needing 38 more from 85 balls. Realeanna Grimmond and Taylor took them there in 3.2. Grimmond struck two fours and two sixes in 23 not out from 16 balls; Taylor's 9 not out included two fours. The hundred came up in the ninth over and the winning runs one ball into the tenth.

There is not much a bowling side can do when a batter is clearing the rope once every four balls, and Zimbabwe Women's figures should be read with that in mind. Chigora bowled her four overs through the storm and took a wicket for her 36. Mutasa got the big one. But the margin for error on 106 was always thin, and 15 extras in 9.1 overs — against just 2 conceded by the West Indies in twenty — narrowed it further. Gwanzura's two overs went for 28, and Nomvelo Sibanda's single over for 16.

The two innings were played at very different speeds — Zimbabwe Women at 5.3 an over, West Indies Women at almost twelve — but the scorecard does not suggest a surface that was doing much. Zimbabwe Women lost one wicket in their first twelve overs; their collapse came from two balls of Claxton and two run-outs rather than anything unplayable. The West Indies hit eight sixes in 55 balls, Zimbabwe Women one in 120. The gap on the day was about intent and power, not the pitch.

Fifty-seven from 23 balls, with three fours and six sixes. Thirty-six of her runs came from sixes alone. Her fifty took 20 balls, and when she was out there were still more than 14 overs left in the match — with only 38 runs needed to fill them.

What made the innings decisive was not only its pace but its timing. Zimbabwe Women had just lost six wickets for 28 and would have been looking for an early wicket to make the target feel bigger than it was. Claxton's dismissal at 27 offered that chance. Brathwaite simply took it away. Some innings are built brick by brick; this one arrived like weather, and by the time it had passed, the series had gone with it. Zimbabwe Women hit one six in their twenty overs. She hit six in her twenty-three balls.

CricIntel did not publish a preview for this match, so there is no prediction to grade.

The third and final T20I is at Takashinga Sports Club on October 7, and our preview is up. West Indies Women have won the series 2-0 with one to play, after their 2-1 win in the ODIs. Claxton followed 2 for 16 and 31 not out in the first game with 3 for 14 in this one, and Brathwaite has now won a match almost on her own. It is a side that is finding winners from different places.

Zimbabwe Women have something more useful to take into the dead rubber than the scoreline suggests. They won a match in the ODI series, and here they showed they can build a platform at the top: 35 without loss, 78 for 1. The task now is the second half of the innings — keeping wickets in hand past the 13th over and turning a start into 130. Do that, and the last game in Harare may yet be worth remembering for the home side.