West Indies Women’s captain Hayley Matthews is counting on her batters to break out of their slump and produce the goods when they face England in their crucial top-of-the-table clash in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup on Wednesday at Lord’s.
The winner will automatically qualify for the semifinals, while the loser will need to win their fifth and final remaining preliminary game to secure their spot in the last four.
Despite their unbeaten start to the tournament, the 2016 champions have failed to fire with the bat in their first three matches. Their highest total so far has been the 163 for three they made in 19.5 overs against New Zealand Women in their opening match.
And Shemaine Campbelle, who scored a match-winning, unbeaten 90 in that contest, is the only batter to have scored a half century for the regional side to date.
Meanwhile, England have been mighty with the bat and are the only team to post two 200-plus totals in this World Cup.
The Windies will however, be boosted by the fact that Aaliyah Alleyne and Matthews are among the top three wicket-takers in the competition.
While acknowledging her team’s batting struggles in an interview following their five-wicket victory over Sri Lanka on Sunday, Matthews said she expected them to come good sooner rather later.
‘I certainly feel like our batters will have the opportunity to peak at the right time and what’s really important is that we are winning matches right now,’ she said.
Matthews said the team’s confidence was extremely high after victories against the defending champions New Zealand, Scotland and Sri Lanka.
She said knowing that they were one win away from qualifying for the semifinals was also an added incentive.
‘It puts us in a really good place. Going into the next match against England we have high confidence.
‘We certainly feel that if we can win one more game here it gets us into the semifinals, so a lot of confidence going into the next two matches, but still we want to take it one game at a time,’ Matthews said.