Bowler collapses while fielding for West Indies

– Pace bowler Shamilia Connell (below) collapsed while fielding for the West Indies at the Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand yesterday and was taken from the ground in an ambulance.

It was not immediately clear what happened to the 29-yearold but she was able to walk to the ambulance and team-mate Hayley Matthews said that “we believe she’ll be alright”.

“Obviously it’s a bit worrying to see her go down like that but she’s a fighter,” said Matthews.

The incident came in the latter stages of a gutsy West Indies fightback that saw them edge Bangladesh by four runs.

Matthews produced a Player-of-the-Match performance to take a career-best 4/15 and spare the West Indies’ blushes after Bangladesh restricted them to 140/9 at Mount Maunganui.

The win puts the West Indies ahead of hosts New Zealand, India and defending champions England in the race for a top-four semifinal berth alongside favourites Australia and South Africa.

But Bangladesh threatened to blow the tournament wide open when their spinners ripped through the West Indies’ batting line-up.

The modest target of 141 proved too much however for the tournament debutants, who fell four runs short with three balls to go in the final over.

“How our bowlers started was incredible but I’m pretty disappointed with the batting,” said captain Nigar Sultana, Bangladesh’s joint top-scorer with 25 runs.

“We lacked partnerships and I should have played until the end.”

Bangladesh’s spinners tore through the middle order as the West indies lost six wickets for 30 runs, struggling at 70/7 and looking unlikely to finish their 50 overs.

Shemaine Campbelle prevented a rout, making an unbeaten 53 off 107 balls, for her second half-century of the tournament.

Bangladesh eventually needed eight runs from the final over in their run chase with no wickets in hand, but Windies captain Stafanie Taylor coaxed an inside edge from Fariha Trisna from her third delivery to finish the contest.