Shaw four-timer sends City into Women’s FA Cup quarter-nals

Captains like legends Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and Chris Gayle, along with Carl Hooper and Denesh Ramdin were unable to lead West Indies to series success against South Africa, but Brathwaite will hope to break the losing trend on his second attempt, after suffering a 2-0 drubbing in the Caribbean two years ago

“Looking at this series, we ’ re playing South Africa at home and we know it won’t be easy,” said Brathwaite, who replaced marquee allrounder Jason Holder as captain in 2021

West Indies beat Zimbabwe 1-0 in the twoTest series in Bulawayo last month to bounce back from a deflating tour of Australia where they were soundly beaten in both Tests

Red-hot Reggae Girl Khadija “Bunny” Shaw

scored four goals as Manchester City advanced to the last eight of the English Women’s FA Cup by routing Championship outfit Bristol City with a 8-1 victory over the Vixens here Sunday

Shaw completed a first-half hat-trick with goals in the 13th, 25th and 41st minutes before adding a fourth on 75 minutes at the High Performance Centre

The four-timer raised the 26-year-old Jamaican’s tally to 21 goals in all competitions in what was her 20th appearance of the term for Manchester City

Julie Blakstad (two) and Filippa Angeldahl were also on the scoresheet as the visitors secured passage into the next round and a great afternoon was rounded off as Shaw turned provider for Jemima Dahou, who scored her first senior goal for the club in the closing stages

“No [I don’t know where to put the match ball at home] but it’s something I can think about,” Spanish Town-born Shaw said after the game

“I try to help the team as much as I can and they’re putting the ball in the box and I just try to put it in the back of the net and scoring ” City, who lie third in the Women’s Super League, were aiming to return from the international break in perfect fashion and made a strong start by taking an early lead

Buoyed by her strong England performances before the meeting, Chloe Kelly drilled a precise pass into Shaw, who spun her marker and fired low into the bottom corner

The goal was the Jamaican’s 18th goal of the season and she grabbed her 19th soon after when she met Laura Coombs’ neat knockdown and struck the ball first-time past goalkeeper Fran Bentley

Gareth Taylor’s side were well on top approaching the interval and Shaw’s superb form in front of goal continued as she bagged her third of the afternoon four minutes before the break

Lauren Hemp and Leila Ouhabi combined down the left, before the Spaniard then played it into the near post and Shaw flicked the ball over Bentley to seal her hat-trick

With 15-minutes left, Shaw’s phenomenal display saw her score a fourth when she collected Deyna Castellano’s chipped pass and drilled the ball across goal into the bottom corner

The hosts had pulled a goal back at 5-1 down when Gracie Pearse headed home Abi Harrison’s whipped free-kick from the left – which proved no more than a consolation

Not even the introduction at the start of the second-half of Shaw’s Jamaica team-mate Shania Hayles – who has scored eight goals for the Vixens this campaign – could change the home side’s fortunes

Those results came on the back of a good year for West Indies in the longest format, Brathwaite leading them to series wins over England and Bangladesh in the Caribbean

The 30-year-old Brathwaite, who has averaged 64 over the last year to spearhead his side’s batting, said it was critical West Indies clicked in all departments against South Africa

“We’re very excited [about this series] Zimbabwe obviously isn’t a top team in the world so we ’ re looking forward to challenging ourselves here,” he pointed out

“It’s important as openers to set the foundation for the team and we look forward to doing that Obviously Tage (Tagenarine Chanderpaul) had a fantastic start and I know we will continue great things and as I said, making West Indians proud ”

He continued: “Obviously it is important we have a complete team effort here in South Africa so it was good to see the top order getting some scores in Zimbabwe, and the middle order in this practice game [last week] before this first Test It’s great and it’s important we put all the pieces together for this Test series ”

Following on from a Zimbabwe series played on slow-turning tracks, West Indies will welcome the livelier pitches here, especially with their attack comprising the likes of veteran seamer Kemar Roach and the pace of Shannon Gabriel and Alzarri Joseph

And Brathwaite said the attack was confident they could execute their plans and find success in the series

Gerald Coetzee, Tony de Zorzi, Dean Elgar, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Anrich Nortje, Keegan Petersen, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton

Jermaine Blackwood, Alick Athanaze, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Roston Chase, Joshua Da Silva, Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder, Akeem Jordan, Alzarri Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Gudakesh Motie, Raymon Reifer, Kemar Roach, Devon Thomas