West Indies 218 for 4 (Matthews 100, Taylor 38, Henry 32*, Madara 2-33) beat Sri Lanka 217 for 7 (Samarawickrama 70, Dilhari 45*, Matthews 2-33, Ramharack 2-39) by six wickets
Hayley Matthews’ tenth ODI century led West Indies to a six-wicket victory in the final match of the series against Sri Lanka and gave them their first points in the new Women’s Championship cycle.
Sri Lanka had already secured the series but couldn’t clinch a whitewash as Matthews dominated: she started the match by removing opposite number Chamari Athapaththu in the first over of the contest and then compiled an 118-ball hundred, which took West Indies most of the way in their chase.
“I felt like I was in a pretty good space batting-wise and probably just [in the] first game got pretty unlucky with how I got out and then in the second match gave my own hand away,” Matthews said. “So I certainly felt like I was in a space where I wasn’t exactly being too threatened at the crease and I knew I just had to lock in and try to take it a bit deeper.”
The home side was in early trouble in St George’s against a target of 218 with Qiana Joseph and Shemaine Campbelle falling to Malki Madara to leave West Indies 12 for 2. But after taking 12 balls to find her first boundary, Matthews did not look back as she took charge of the innings, adding 124 for the third wicket with Stafanie Taylor, who moved second on the all-time run-scorers list in ODIs.Matthews’ fifty came from 48 balls before she slowed a little in the second half of her innings, but the asking rate was never a threat for West Indies. She did give a chance on 70 when Nilakshika Silva was unable to hold a return catch. The ball after reaching the century, though, Matthews picked out deep midwicket but a stand of 49 between Deandra Dottin and Chinelle Henry finished the job.Following the early loss of Athapaththu, Sri Lanka’s innings was anchored by Harshitha Samarawickrama’s 70 off 112 balls. She added 78 for the third wicket with Vishmi Gunaratne, but the visitors struggled to lift the scoring rate in the latter stages as West Indies chipped away, with Karishma Ramharack removing Gunaratne and Samarawickrama in the space of four overs.
