Matthews looks to top order in Final

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Captain Hayley Matthews has lauded Barbados’ top order for their efficiency, especially the form of Knight twins Kycia and Kyshona, after her side reached Saturday’s final of the Women’s Super50 Cup.

Matthews, along with Kycia and Kyshona, all produced sterling performances in Wednesday’s first semi-final as Barbados easily chased down 134 to beat Trinidad and Tobago by nine wickets at the Guyana National Stadium.

“Coming into this tournament, we knew our top three were going to be very, very important, without the likes of Deandra Dottin in our lineup this year,” Matthews said.

“And I think they’ve done a great job – myself included – to be able to go out there and take command of most of the innings we’ve played.

“I’m quite proud of how the twins [have] gone along this entire tournament and hopefully we can take it one step further to the final as well.”

She continued: “They’ve been great this entire tournament and the stats have shown one of them always getting runs in every single innings which has been really good.

“I think we’ve had a lot of our top order batters batting really, really deep into the innings which is definitely something that we have needed. It’s really great I could’ve gotten that help at the top of the order and keeping our lower order fresh.”

Matthews struck an unbeaten 50 against T&T – her second half-century of the Super50 Cup – and tops the run-scoring charts in the tournament with 165 runs.

The Knight twins round out the top three, with Kyshona scoring 126 runs and Kycia 104, to be the only players with more than 100 runs.

Fast bowler Aaliyah Alleyne has also been among the tournament’s leading bowlers and it was her four-wicket burst with the new ball on Wednesday which rocked T&T and laid the foundation for Barbados’ win.

“She’s been great with the new ball in the absence of Shamilia Connell and it was really good to see her attacking Captain Hayley Matthews the stumps [against T&T], getting three [early] wickets but getting them bowled as well and also hitting the stumps really really hard,” Matthews said.

“It was really good to see. She’s a really important part of our team lineup and it was a really good performance from her picking up four wickets.”

Barbados are defending champions in the Super50 Cup and Saturday’s final represents a chance for redemption after Jamaica dethroned them in the preceding T20 Blaze.

“All we have to do is go out there and play our best cricket and hopefully come out on top,” Matthews said.
(CMC)