Matthews leads WI Women to 4-1 series win

KARACHI, Pakistan (CMC):

West Indies Women won their five-match Twenty20 International series against hosts Pakistan Women 4-1 after another Player-of-the-Match innings from their captain Hayley Matthews enabled them to close out with a resounding eight-wicket win yesterday.

The 26-year-old Barbadian all-rounder struck 11 fours in a top score of 78 from 59 balls and the Caribbean side successfully chased 135 in the final match of the series that was exclusively played at the National Stadium.

She ended with a series-high 205 runs at an average of 41 with her score yesterday being the highest in the five innings that she played, and she finished with seven wickets – the second highest for her side behind eight for leg-spinner Afy Fletcher – and collected them at 15.28 apiece to make her a shoo-in for the Player-of-the-Series prize.

Matthews shared 103 for the second wicket with her deputy Shemaine Campbelle that carried the visitors to 37 for one after the Power Play, 82 for one at the mid-point of the innings, and 117 for one with five overs remaining.

West Indies Women were firmly on course to win when left-arm spinner Nashra Sandhu bowled Matthews with seven required from 15 balls.

Campbelle was not out on 33, and teenage left-handed all-rounder Zaida James came to the crease and knocked off the remaining runs, finishing the match with a boundary, to bring the highly successful tour for the Caribbean side to a close.

The visitors won all but one of the preceding seven international matches on the trip – the first three T20Is by margins of one run, seven wickets, and two runs, and the preceding three ICC Women’s Championship One-day Internationals – before they stumbled to an eight-wicket loss on Thursday in the fourth T20I.

Earlier, Fletcher grabbed three for 17 from her allotted four overs, and Windward Islands Women teammate Qiana Joseph supported with two wickets, and West Indies Women defied solid top-order batting from the Pakistanis and restricted the hosts to 134 for eight after putting them in to bat.

Sidra Ameen led the way for Pakistan Women with 48 to end the series with the second highest aggregate behind Matthews of 159, Muneeba Ali got 25, and Ayesha Zafar got 22 – but no other player got 20 for the hosts after they reached 44 for one at the end of the Power Play.