Matthews seeking change of fortunes against India

NAVI MUMBAI, India (CMC):

West Indies Women’s captain Hayley Matthews believes that the regional team can overcome India’s dominance over them at home and turn their fortunes around in their T20 series which bowls off here today.

Speaking during a pre-match press conference yesterday, Matthews conceded that India Women had emerged on top of the Caribbean side in recent times.

The last time the two teams clashed in a T20 series was back in 2019 in the Caribbean where India Women prevailed 5-0.

However, she maintained that West Indies Women had been playing at a high level over the past two years and backed her team to emerge victorious in the three-match series which will be played at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

“…When you look at 2024 as a team, especially in T20 cricket, we’ve done really well,” Matthews said.

“I think we played five T20s against Pakistan winning four, two out of three against Sri Lanka, and then making a World Cup semi-final as well.

“So, yeah, over that eight-year span, things might look like they haven’t gone that good, but I feel like over the past year, year and a half, we’ve done a really good job of putting the team together and everyone really putting up their hand and playing their roles to get us wins,” she added.

She said much of India’s success over the West Indies Women had come at a time when they were going through a “transitionary period”.

“…When it does come to our record against India, it probably hasn’t been the best of late, but I think we were going through some type of transitionary period within the team and our record against anyone wasn’t the best throughout that period,” Matthews said.

“We’ve been working really hard and really focused on our game and what we can improve.

“Obviously, coming up against a team like India, it’s going to be a tough assignment, but we have been playing some really positive cricket over the last year, like I keep saying, and back ourselves to hopefully go out there and be able to change things around a bit,” she added.