About 30 minutes before the start of the West Indies-England T20 World Cup game, there seemed to be some kind of a forewarning. A gusty wind blew across the Dubai cricket ground. Some three hours later, that wind had manifested into a ‘Qiana-Joseph-storm’ inside the stadium. Such was the power and strength of Qiana’s batting that it blew away England’s chances of progressing to the World Cup semifinal and powered the West Indies into the last-four.
Qiana’s thought process was clear – if you bowl in my arc, it will go out of the park. Agricultural hoicks to pulls and lofts, Qiana was thoroughly enjoying her stay in the middle. Hayley Matthews, the fulcrum of the side, was matching Qiana’s strike rate. But for once it wasn’t the West Indies skipper who stole the show. It was Qiana. Meanwhile, England didn’t seem to know what really hit them. Dropping a string of catches didn’t help their cause either. By the completion of 6 overs, West Indies galloped to 67 for no loss. With just 75 more runs to score, the Windies had ‘killed’ the game in the PowerPlay itself.
So, who is Qiana Joseph? For that, you have to scroll through a Cricket West Indies YouTube video from 2019. With a constant smile, the St Lucia-born cricketer mentions that she is a left-arm medium pacer who mostly generates inswing into the right-hander. And how she is trying to learn the tricks of pace bowling from her team-mates – Shakera Selman and Shamilia Connell. A couple of years earlier, when Qiana made her ODI debut versus South Africa in the 50-over World Cup, she had come out to bat at the No. 11 position. In her second T20I game, she batted at the No.8 position.
It was in the 2022 CPL, where Qiana showcased some of her power-hitting skills with a brisk 19-ball 30. Incidentally, she came out to bat with her side, Barbados Royals in trouble. By the time Qiana made her comeback into the West Indies set-up this year, the coaching staff had decided that she would be used as a floater.
She went on to play a useful hand of 34 this year versus Pakistan, which was her highest T20I score until she smashed England’s bowlers to shreds last night. Qiana had also provided more evidence of her pyrotechnics in a warm-up game versus the defending champions Australia. Interestingly, Shane Deitz, the current West Indies coach, did observe before the World Cup that Qiana ‘is a dangerous player’. Those words turned out to be prophetic.
The night didn’t just belong to one player. It belonged to all those 11 West Indies cricketers who believed that they could do something special. When Aaliyah Alleyne hit the winning runs, the entire group of West Indies’ players was seen screaming and high-fiving the dug-out. At the other end of the spectrum, a young boy in the stands, with an England shirt on, was down to tears. The same could be said about the English players.
Heather Knight, the England skipper, who couldn’t take the field due to a calf injury, was also emotional. But she had an extra responsibility, and that was to console her team-mates. The last bit of action of the night was, however, left to the show stopper Qiana. The left-hander showed her dance steps while receiving the Player of the Match award.