Taylor stars in series-clincher

West Indies 164 for 4 (Taylor 66) beat Ireland 163 for 9 (Shillington 54, Fletcher 4-22, Mohammed 3-24)
Scorecard

West Indies women rounded off the first leg of their Europe tour successfully with a series-clinching win over Ireland in the third ODI in Dublin. Offspinners Afy Fletcher and Anisa Mohammed shared seven wickets between them to restrict Ireland to 163 after which Stefanie Taylor scored her maiden half-century to take West Indies to a comfortable six-wicket win.

Ireland got off to a sound start, with openers Emma Beamish and Cecilia Joyce adding 61, but they came unstuck when Cecilia was run out by Taylor for 38. Ireland lost two more wickets, to Mohammed, with only seven more added to the total. And even though Shillington, who came in at No. 4, scored a half-century and stayed nearly till the end, she was unable to forge any useful partnerships as Fletcher and Mohammed repeatedly broke through Ireland's poor defences.

West Indies lost two early wickets - to Isobel - but Taylor stayed on and wrapped up the chase with more than 14 overs remaining. Taylor, 17, is one of many West Indies players participating in their first international series, and she followed up a spectacular 90 in West Indies' maiden Twenty20 on Friday with another confident batting display on Sunday. She hit five fours in her 97-ball 66 and added 79 with Charlene Taitt for the fourth wicket.

While West Indies now head to Netherlands for four ODIs and two Twenty20s, Ireland will wait a month for an ODI and a Twenty20 against the visiting South Africans.