Matthews delighted with all-round efforts, series sweep

Player-of-the-Series, Hayley Matthews, says she is delighted with her performance in the just-concluded three-match series even though not scoring as heavily as she wanted to.

A stylish right-hander, who also bowls off-spin, Matthews averaged 44 with the bat and captured seven wickets at an average of 14 and an economy rate of less than 3-½ runs per over, to be among the leading performers.

“Looking at it, what was really important for us was assessing the conditions down here,” said the Barbadian, who has become a fixture in the Caribbean side ever since her debut as a teenager seven years ago.

“I think I was able to understand that really well and just do what I needed to do. I was a bit disappointed that I probably didn’t get a couple more runs but at the same time I am really, really grateful that I was able to have a huge all-round performance and contribute to team wins.”

Matthews scored 57 and picked up three wickets as West Indies Women trounced Pakistan Women by 45 runs in the opening ODI.

The 23-year-old maintained her form with the ball in the second game, claiming four wickets to help the tourists defend a paltry 153 and win by 37 runs.

Matthews shone again with the bat in Sunday’s convincing six-wicket victory, stroking an entertaining 49 in an 83-run fourth wicket stand with captain Stafanie Taylor (102 not out), to dig the innings out of trouble at 15 for three in the fifth over.

“From the time I went out there, I mentioned to her (Taylor) we just needed to stick in for a while and she said the same exact thing to me,” recounted Matthews.

“I think our first target was just to get out of the powerplay and get to that tenth over. I think it just so happened that we were able to pick up boundaries at regular intervals which worked out well for us, and probably eased a little of the pressure off ourselves by getting the scoring rate up a bit.”

Matthews’s performance was in stark contrast to her returns when South Africa Women toured the Caribbean recently for a five-match ODI series, when she scraped 71 runs from five matches and managed only two wickets from 41 overs.

She pointed to the quality of the pitch at the National Stadium here, noting it had allowed her to execute her skills.

“I always try my absolute best to do as well as I possibly can for the team,” she stressed.

“We have players who have been working really hard for a good while and I’m just really happy I was able to come down here and execute well. 

“The wicket was really good down here constantly so it was really good that I could both bat and bowl well on it. I’m happy I got in some performances but even more happy for a team win.”

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