(Reuters) -West Indies have failed to qualify for the Women's Cricket World Cup by the thinnest of margins, edged out by Bangladesh on net run-rate by just 0.01, despite winning their final game inside 11 overs on Saturday.
Only the top two teams advance to the 50-over World Cup in September. After limiting Thailand to 166, West Indies, third in the table, needed to chase the target within 10 overs to leapfrog second-placed Bangladesh on net run-rate.
They made a blistering start, racing to 156-3 in 10 overs, the highest powerplay total in women's ODIs, and sealed victory at 168-4 five balls later. But with a net run-rate of 0.63, they fell just short of Bangladesh's 0.64 despite finishing level on six points.
Ranked sixth in the ICC Women's ODI rankings, West Indies were among the favourites to qualify for the finals. They will be missing from the tournament for the first time since 2000, having reached the semi-finals in 2022, where they lost to eventual champions Australia.
"We had a lot of expectations, not just from the outside, but from ourselves as well," captain Hayley Matthews said. Early losses had left West Indies with an uphill task heading into their final game.
"We feel like we definitely let ourselves down, probably earlier on in the tournament, and I guess we're just paying the price for that now," she said.
"Now with so many senior players like Stafanie Taylor, Shemaine Campbelle, and Afy Fletcher — who’ve given so many years to West Indies cricket — it's hard.
"The next 50-over World Cup is not until 2029, and we don't know what things will look like by then. So yeah, we're all really heartbroken and disappointed."
Pakistan and Bangladesh join defending champions Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and hosts India for the eight-team tournament.
(Reporting by Shifa Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saad Sayeed)
