WCPL
Barbados Tridents Edge Jamaica Empress by Three Runs in WCPL Thriller
The defending champions were 56 for 4 before Bates and Green rebuilt, then held their nerve as Meg Lanning's 57 nearly stole the game.
In brief
Tridents survive a late scare to stay in the WCPL title race
- Suzie Bates and Maddy Green added 78 runs after Barbados Tridents had slipped to 56 for 4 inside ten overs.
- Stafanie Taylor took 4 for 29, including three wickets in the final over of the Tridents innings.
- Meg Lanning made 57 for Jamaica Empress, but the chase fell three runs short at the death.
Bates and Green rebuild the Tridents innings
Barbados Tridents kept their Limacol WCPL 2026 title defence alive with a three-run win over Jamaica Empress at Kensington Oval, but they needed rescuing first. Batting first after winning the toss, the Tridents ran into sharp new-ball bowling from Rosemary Mair and Chinelle Henry, and Nonkululeko Mlaba made the opening breakthrough by having Qiana Joseph caught and bowled.
Hayley Matthews tried to hold the innings together but never found her timing, making 21 from 23 balls. When she went, the Tridents were 56 for 4 inside the tenth over and in real trouble. Suzie Bates and Maddy Green changed the game from there, putting on 78 together and working the spinners around with sweeps and reverse sweeps.
Taylor's final over limits the damage
The Bates and Green stand gave the Tridents a platform for the closing overs, but they could not fully cash in. Stafanie Taylor struck three times in the final over to finish with 4 for 29, dragging the Empress back into the contest just when the champions had looked ready to post something beyond reach.
That late burst mattered. The Empress chase then looked to be running away from Barbados altogether, because Meg Lanning and Amy Hunter put together the highest opening stand in WCPL history. Lanning played the innings of the match, a classy 57, and for long stretches the pair scored so freely that the result felt settled.
Lanning falls and the chase stalls
The game turned when the opening stand finally broke, Hunter well caught by Bates off Afy Fletcher. Lanning followed, and without the two set batters the Empress middle order could not keep the rate going against a Tridents attack that slowed things down and protected the boundaries in the closing overs. Bates, fresh from rebuilding the innings with the bat, also played her part with the ball, combining with Fletcher to make every run hard to find once the openers had gone.
Barbados closed it out by three runs, a result that keeps their push for a fourth straight title alive ahead of the remaining group fixtures on the CPL schedule. Read more on the Barbados Tridents team guide, and see how Trinbago Knight Riders stayed unbeaten earlier in the week.