MOUNT MAUNGANUI, New Zealand (CMC) – Stroke-maker Hayley Matthews believes West Indies’ shock win over New Zealand in Friday’s opener of the ICC Women’s World Cup has released some of the pressure on the Caribbean side, especially following adverse results in the pre-tournament warm-ups last week.

West Indies suffered heavy losses to Australia and India in two official warm-ups, failing to crack 200 on either occasion in pursuit of 250-plus totals, but pulled off a narrow three-run victory over New Zealand in a dramatic finish at Bay Oval.

With the hosts needing six runs from the last over in pursuit of 260, veteran all-rounder Deandra Dottin snatched two wickets and effected a run-out in a thrilling climax.

Expectations surrounding West Indies for the March 4 to April 3 tournament have been low, in light of their recent unflattering One-Day International form, but Matthews said the victory had allowed them to make a “statement”.

“It’s massive. I keep saying we’ve obviously come into this tournament a bit as underdogs playing under the radar and yeah, I think that’s really good for us,” said Matthews, whose Player-of-the-Match 119 formed the basis for West Indies’ victory.

“It’s helped to ease a bit of pressure and to make a statement like this first game is obviously massive and hopefully we can just carry this form moving forward into the rest of the tournament, and obviously we’ve got a pretty big first four games.

“Obviously (we’ve been) able to knock over New Zealand but if we can look to get some more wins early on in the competition, (it) is going to set us up in a really strong position.”
West Indies face a difficult opening fixture list with reigning champions England next up on Wednesday followed by India three days later and then a clash with Australia on March 15.

The top four teams following the seven-match group stage will advance to the semi-finals, a stage West Indies have not reached since featuring in the final of the 2013 showpiece.

And Matthews warned that improvements were needed – especially in the field – if West Indies were to churn out more positive results.

“One hundred per cent I think anyone will say we were pretty bad in the field (against New Zealand),” she said.

“But at the same time … it just shows that we’ve got more to give. We’ve got more room for improvement. It’s just about really reflecting on what we did really well and what we didn’t do so well.
“We didn’t do fielding (well) and (we have) to improve that as much as we possibly can before the next game.”

West Indies’ preparation for the tournament was somewhat messed up, especially after the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 forced the hasty abandonment of last December’s qualifiers after they had played just one game.

Their only competitive action since then was a four-match series in Johannesburg last month but despite the 3-1 defeat, Matthews said the outing had been important.
“Obviously heading for qualifiers we were looking to use the opportunity to get some really good practice and with everything that happened we weren’t able to do so,” said the 23-year-old.

“At the same time, I do think we still had adequate preparation. Obviously heading to South Africa before we got here was really, really good. And we feel we’re in a really good space.
“Everyone’s playing the right cricket. I think we’re just picking the right time at the moment.”