(CMC) – Following her record-breaking century in the opening One Day International against Zimbabwe Women on Thursday, West Indies Women’s captain Hayley Matthews said she is relishing the opportunity to continue leading from the front.
Matthews produced a Player-of-the-Match performance at the Harare Sports Club, smashing 182 off 156 balls to propel the visitors to a 99-run victory over the home side in the opening game of the three-match series.
It was her 13th ODI century and the highest individual score by a West Indies woman in an ODI.
Speaking on her impressive outing with the bat during a post-match press conference, Matthews said she was delighted to have played such a pivotal role in her side’s victory.
“It was pretty nice to be out there and be able to spend some time and get some runs. A new PB [personal best] for myself definitely sets high goals coming into this series, so I’m pretty happy I’ve been able to start well.
“It’s good that I can set an example out on the park in general with performances, so to be able to go out at the top of the order and get a score like that and get us into a position going into that second innings where we felt like we had a good score on the board, certainly makes me feel like I did my job,” Matthews said.
“I certainly feel like when I get myself in and to 50, I want to try and convert that to hundreds as much as possible and whenever I get the opportunity to score a 100 and still have a lot of overs left to bat, rather than just giving it away, try to take it as deep as possible and get a really big one. It’s not every day you get a chance to 100, so when I do get to those numbers I try to make it as big as possible.”