Women's Cricket World Cup: How the West Indies' unlikely heroine Deandra Dottin broke White Ferns hearts

Deandra Dottin celebrates the crucial wicket of Jess Kerr. Photo / Photosport

With the opening game of the World Cup on the line and the White Ferns needing six runs from the last six balls, a bowler who hadn't taken an ODI wicket since 2019 walked up to her captain.

"Skip, I want the ball, give me the ball," Deandra Dottin demanded to Stafanie Taylor.

That ball was supposed to go to Shakera Selman, who had taken 1-37 in seven overs, but Taylor, with a bemused shrug, granted Dottin her forceful wish.

Five balls later, Dottin had two wickets and the West Indies had an incredible victory from an unlikely source.

"We were like – what? You haven't bowled international cricket in about a year now," recalled a grinning Hayley Matthews, named player of the match for her stunning 119. "You literally haven't bowled to anyone in the nets since we've been here.

"But a player like Deandra Dottin – when she says to give her the ball, you just give her the ball - doesn't matter. I feel like she went into that over knowing she was going to get the job done - and for her it was like 'if we lose I'm going to take the blame.'"

That's certainly how Taylor saw it, joking as she handed the ball to Dottin that "you and the coach can discuss after, this has nothing to do with me", but Dottin – with a helping hand from a diving stop from Chinelle Henry that saved a first-ball boundary - delivered on her confidence.

After Henry's save, Dottin trapped Katey Martin lbw with a yorker, then two balls later got Jess Kerr to miscue a drive to mid-off, before finishing her heroics with the winning run out from a mix-up on an attempted bye after Hannah Rowe played and missed.

Matthews says that Dottin's unexpected contribution is a microcosm of what the West Indies can do.

"That's what's really good about our team. We've got so much experience and we've got so many veterans that we can really call on. People that we know once we call on them, they're going to get the job done and she was the epitome of that.

"Everyone was just pretty happy that we got the win and she was able to do exactly what we knew she could."

White Ferns skipper Sophie Devine, whose excellent 108 was in vain in the losing effort, doffed her cap to Dottin's final over.

"Full credit has to go to the West Indies, I thought the way Hayley Matthews played was brilliant, they set the game up well but I thought we were right in it until the last over.

"You don't get much more clutch than a bowler coming in to bowl the 50th over and do what Dottin did.

"We've got to take the positives out of it and we've got to move on quickly."