WORCESTER, England, CMC – Marquee batsman Hayley Matthews says securing two points from tomorrow’s final game against England will be critical for West Indies, especially following heavy defeats in the opening two One-Day Internationals of the series. The Caribbean side suffered a 208-run loss in the opener at Leicester last Thursday – their heaviest ever defeat to England in an ODI – before going down by 121 runs under Duckworth-Lewis in Sunday’s rain-hit second outing here.
And with just one more game on Thursday in which to salvage points – and pride – Matthews said it was important the Windies gave it their all.
“I think for us it’s about going in there with a fighting spirit. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to win either of the first two games but we really want to go into that last game pushing hard,” she said.
“We know the talent we have in the dressing room and I think it will be just for us to go out there and play our natural game, doing what we know we can do and hopefully we can get a win and take two points off the last game.”
In a contest reduced to 41 overs per side because of rain, West Indies produced an improved bowling performance to restrict England to 233 for seven.
However, the Windies then slumped to 32 for four after 13 overs before rain halted the encounter. On resumption, the visitors were set a revised target of 209 off 28 overs which proved beyond their capabilities.
“I think we lost a few too many wickets early on. We didn’t get off to the start that we wanted to and I think that put a bit of pressure on the middle to lower order,” Matthews explained.
“When the rain came down and the total was revised, it kind of pretty much put us out of it, with the amount of runs we had to get in the end, with the amount of overs that were left.”
Despite the defeat, Matthews hailed the improved performance over the first outing.
“Just looking at the footage and looking at what we did wrong in the first ODI, we could see we probably bowled a bit too short and bowled a bit too many loose balls,” she pointed out.
“Coming into this game we knew what we had to correct and I think we were able to do that a lot better and probably be a bit more consistent in our areas and not have as many boundary balls as well.”
The two defeats have left West Indies one from bottom in the eight-team ICC Women’s Championship on 11 points, with hosts New Zealand and the top four teams gaining automatic qualification for the 2021 World Cup.
