The Chile women were last involved in the South American Women’s Championships involving teams like Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru alongside Chile in Peru in October 2019. They won a couple of games, Mexico and Peru. On the other hand, Argentina was last involved in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Americas Region Qualifiers in the USA in September earlier this year. They had a tournament to forget as they went winless in their six-game campaign.
The next assignment for Argentina was the limited-overs series which consisted of a three-match T20I series at home against Chile. The series commenced on 13 October 2023 and will conclude on 15 October 2023. Chile skipper Camila Valdes won the toss and opted to field first. After being inserted to bat first, the Argentina openers got off to a rollicking start. The Chile bowlers were taken to the cleaners all around the park as the openers Lucia Taylor and Albertina Galan stitched together a humongous 350-run opening partnership, scoring over 21 runs per over. The opening partnership was also the first-ever triple-century partnership (350 by Lucia Talyor and Albertina Galan) in the history of Women’s T20Is.
Both the openers completed their respective centuries during the course of the partnership. Lucia Taylor reached her milestone in just 10.2 overs of the innings, which is the earliest as far as the women’s T20Is are concerned. Jessica Miranda provided the first breakthrough for Chile by dismissing Lucia Taylor for a well-made 169, scoring at a mind-boggling strike rate of 201.19. She now holds the record for the highest individual score (169 off 84 balls) in the history of women’s T20Is. She went past Bahrain’s Deepika Rasangika’s (161 off 66 balls).
Argentina eventually ended up with a mammoth total of 427/1 in their quota of overs. Lucia Taylor (169 off 84 balls), and Albertina Galan (145 off 84 balls) were the top performers with the bat for Argentina. It was also the first-ever instance of a 350+ and a 400+ total in the women’s T20Is. Jessica Miranda (1/64) was the only wicket-taker with the ball for Chile.
🚨 WORLD RECORD! 🚨
427 Runs in just 20 overs for the Argentina Women's Cricket team against Chile.
Argentina: 427/1 (20)
Chile: 63/10 (15)
Result: Argentina won by 364 Runs#CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/tk8rggk4Tf— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) October 14, 2023
Chasing a humongous target of 428, the Chile openers failed to get their team off to a good start, as they lost the wicket of their opener Maria Salazar for a 9-ball duck in the fourth over of the run chase. Alison Stocks provided the first breakthrough for Argentina. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals and at one stage they found themselves in deep trouble at 26/4 in the eighth over of the run chase.
Franchesca Moya joined Jessica Miranda at the crease and the duo stitched a crucial 17-run partnership for the fifth wicket before Albertina Galan dismissed Franchesca Moya for 5 off 10 balls. They were eventually bundled out for 63 as they suffered a collapse, losing their last five wickets for just 20 runs. As a result, they sealed the game by a massive 364-run margin. Argentina recorded the highest-ever margin (364 runs) of victory in the history of the women’s game as far as the T20Is are concerned, surpassing Uganda’s 304-run victory against Mali which came on 20th June 2019.
Jessica Miranda (27 off 29 balls) was the top performer with the bat for Chile. Her knock included four boundaries and she was the only one in the whole batting line-up to enter the double digits. Constanza Sosa (1/10), and Albertina Galan (1/17) were the top performers with the ball for Argentina. Lucia Taylor was awarded the Player of the Match for her record-breaking performance (169 off 84 balls) with the bat.