Windies captain belts century to lead historic T20 run chase against Aussies

This time around, the world champs were no match for Hayley Matthews.

Twenty-four hours after scoring 99 in a losing cause, Matthews returned to strike a magnificent 132 to propel West Indies Women to an unlikely seven wicket victory over Australia on Monday and level the three-match series at 1-1.

Playing at the North Sydney Oval, the visitors successfully chased down Australia’s challenging total of 212-6 from 20 overs, finishing on 213 for 3 off 19.5 overs, the highest successful run chase of all-time in Women’s Twenty20 Internationals.

The 25-year-old West Indies captain cracked 20 fours and five sixes from 64 balls in a breathtaking assault on the Australian bowling.

It followed Matthews’ tidy bowling spell of three for 36 from her allotted four overs with her off-spin after the home side was put in to bat and made her a shoo-in for a seventh straight Player-of-the-Match award in T20s.

Matthews’ second T20I hundred surpassed fellow Barbadian all-rounder Deandra Dottin for the highest score in this format for West Indies Women.

Dottin held the record for the past 13 years after her amazing 112 not out off 40 balls against South Africa Women at Warner Park in St Kitts at the 2010 Women’s T20I World Cup. It was the first T20 hundred by a man or woman on the international stage.

Matthews also took down another Dottin record for the most runs in boundaries in a Women’s T20I, eclipsing her compatriot’s seven fours and nine sixes against the Proteas in that World Cup innings in Basseterre.

Fortune favoured Matthews on 30 when Megan Schutt dropped her at deep point off pacer Annabel Sutherland before Phoebe Litchfield, the Aussies’ batting hero from earlier in the day, put down a regulation chance at cover when she was on 87 off leg-spinner Georgia Wareham.

To a standing ovation before a modest crowd, Matthews brought up her hundred from 53 balls when she drove a delivery from Schutt, bowling her right-arm medium-pace, through backward point before taking a four and a six off the next two balls.

Her predecessor as West Indies Women’s captain, Stafanie Taylor supported with 59 from 41 balls and shared a record-breaking 174 for the second wicket, to put the Caribbean side firmly on track before Schutt bowled her with 28 needed from 18 balls to give Australia a sliver of hope.

The stand was the highest for West Indies Women for any wicket in women’s T20Is, breaking the record of 162 unbroken between Matthews and Chedean Nation against Ireland four years ago in Dublin.

Matthews carried her side to within reach of victory with her dizzying batting, hitting Jess Jonassen for four consecutive fours in the 19th over, before the left-arm spinner bowled her behind her back with the penultimate ball of the same over.

West Indies needed nine from the last seven balls of the match, and Chinelle Henry and Shemaine Campbelle, both not out on four, made sure that the efforts of Matthews and Taylor were not ruined, scrambling two to long-on from the off-spin of Ashleigh Gardner to seal the result with one ball left.

The innings from Matthews topped the efforts with the bat of Australia’s Ellyse Perry and Litchfield.

Perry, who did not bowl due to a long-standing knee injury, was the cornerstone for the Aussies with 70 from 46 balls, and Litchfield smashed 52 from 19 balls and equaled the record for the fastest half-century in women’s T20Is set by Sophie Devine of New Zealand in a whirlwind finish for the hosts.

Pacer Shamilia Connell supported Matthews with the ball, taking two for 35 from her four overs, but fellow Barbadian pacer Aaliyah Alleyne conceded 53 in her allotted four overs – the most expensive spell for West Indies Women in T20Is – beating the 44 conceded by Nation against hosts India seven years ago in Vijayawada.

West Indies started the match brightly when Campbelle leapt high and caught Australia’s captain Alyssa Healy at backward point off the first ball of the match from pacer Henry.

Matthews bowled Tahlia McGrath in the next over, and the hosts were seven for two, before Perry steadied the innings with a stand of 70 with opener Beth Mooney that carried Australia to 38 for two at the end of the power play.

Another timely interjection from Matthews came when Mooney was caught at backward square leg and Australia wobbled on 77 for three at the halfway stage, before Connell added the scalps of Gardner and Perry and the home team sunk to 120 for five.

West Indies Women let things slip in the final five overs when Litchfield took charge, and she shared an unbroken stand of 66 for the seventh wicket with Georgia Wareham, not out on 32, in a flourishing finish before Matthews came out and saved the day. 

(RB/CMC)