Windies women seek consistency in third ODI against South Africa
The West Indies women are currently leading their ODI series against host South Africa, and will be looking to maintain that lead for the remaining two matches in the series.
Deandra Dottin's career-best 150* on Friday could not beat the rain but her 19 off five balls in the Super Over sealed a rain-affect second ODI against South Africa.
Hayley Matthews and Deandra Dottin smashed 25 without loss in the Super Over to hand the West Indies a series lead.
Matthews said their plan was to score “as many runs as possible no matter what”.
“Obviously with her smoking the ball like she was doing, it kind of did hype me up and want to get in the action too and it worked out well in the end,” she added.
On Tuesday, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced Matthews has progressed four places to 11th position in the ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings after a fine show in the first two matches of their four match-series.
Matthews, who grabbed two wickets each in both matches, is the highest-ranked bowler from the West Indies.
In the first match was Deandra Dottin's career-best 150* went in vain as rain washed out the match after West Indies posted 234.
What Matthews saw from the non-striker’s end was mind-blowing.
“Going into the changing room to get ready, I remember almost hyperventilating with disbelief. When we got out there with Deandra on the other end, makes it easy for me to watch the show, enjoy what’s going on and feed off her energy,” she said.
The third match in the series will be played on Thursday, at the same venue, while the final match is set for Sunday.
Matthews is confident that the team will do well if they keep up their current performance.
“I mean yeah, it just shows a bit of consistency and I guess a lot of fight within the team as well. So hoping to go on to the future games and be able to perform even better and win even more consistently.” Matthews noted.
Deandra Dottin added, “I think that we just need to continue what we are doing, that’s the only way we can get better with how we did yesterday, into the next day.”
This series is meant to prep the women for the upcoming Women's World Cup in New Zealand. (CWI)
