CHENNAI, India, CMC- All-rounder Hayley Matthews has described West Indies Women win over Bangladesh on Sunday as ‘important’ as the team prepares for crucial matches in the Women’s T20 World Cup under way in India.
Matthews played a key role in West Indies Women second victory in the tournament, a 49 run triumph over Bangladesh Women at the Chidambaram Stadium following an opening win over Pakistan.
West Indies Women take on top rated England in their next game in Dharamsala on Thursday before playing India.
“I think that it was important for the team especially knowing we have to hard games coming up versus England and India to secure a second round in the tournament,” said Matthews in an interview with WICB media.
“It would definitely be a challenge, different conditions and so on.
Obviously England are one of the better teams in the tournament so we are just looking to hopefully get a win against them which would really give the girls a lot of confidence by going on to the India game”.
Matthews hit the top score of 41 as West Indies posted a competitive 148 for four from their allocation of 20 overs, after choosing to bat against Bangladesh.
The 18-year old faced 42 balls and struck four fours while teaming up with her skipper Stafanie Taylor to compile 67 off 70 balls for the first wicket.
Taylor also returned with her off spin to grab two for 16.
“I was not in too much forming coming over here and I didn’t really get a good spell in a warm-up game.
So I was pretty happy to get some runs today and also to get the team off to a good start with Stafanie,” said Matthews.
“I have been doing a lot of work on my bowling recently so I am glad to see some progress in that area …not only with the bat”. The result meant that the Caribbean side is now perched at the top of the Group “B” standings with four points and a healthy net run-rate of 1.325.
“It’s really good to start the tournament off with two wins especially after losing the series to South Africa,” she said.
“So we are just really looking to continue that form.”
