Matthews masterclass earns West Indies first win of T20 World Cup
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup
Match 3 – v Ireland Women
Venue: Newlands, Cape Town; South Africa
Toss: Ireland Women
Result: West Indies won by 6 wickets
Scorecard: https://bit.ly/t20wcwiwvirew
Hayley Matthews demonstrated her immense class with a superb match-winning performance as West Indies earned their first victory in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup on Friday night at the historic venue. The talismanic allrounder played the ultimate captain’s knock of 66 not out as West Indies won the close contest with a ball to spare. Matthews held her nerve and struck the winning runs – a powerful shot over cover for a boundary – and celebrated with a scream of delight. It piloted the former world champions to 140-4 off 19.5 overs in reply to Ireland’s challenging target of 137-9 off their 20 overs.
Overall Mathews hit eight glorious fours on both sides of the wicket and a towering off 53 balls as she masterfully guided the innings. She added an invaluable 74 for the third wicket with Chinelle Henry, who contributed 34 off 28 balls with four boundaries. Earlier in the day Matthews also took a wicket and held two catches to be named Player of the Match.
"I think as captain and as one of the leaders in the batting lineup, we needed someone to bat through the innings and that's the role I tried to take on today. There was definitely a lot of pressure. We knew it was a score that we needed someone to bat through the innings really deep in order to get,” Matthews said after the thrilling encounter."
West Indies got onto the points table and are now on two points in fourth position in Group 2 – behind England, India and Pakistan – and still with a chance of making the semi-finals. West Indies will therefore have all to play for when they play the fourth and final preliminary match on Sunday against Pakistan at the picturesque Boland Park in Paarl. First ball is 3pm (9am Eastern Caribbean/8am Jamaica).
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