Sherdon Cowan-Despite a narrow defeat in the preceding T20I series, West Indies women’s captain Hayley Matthews remains upbeat about her team’s chances heading into the opening One-day International (ODI) encounter of their three-match series against India on Sunday.
Matthews, like she did after the 1-2 loss in the T20 series, again emphasized the importance of adaptability, confidence, and execution, especially in this longer format.
“Playing against India is always going to be really tough, but we’ve got a squad full of really good players who are quite capable of coming down here and being successful. I think we showed in that second T20 that we’re a competitive team who, when we’re at our best, can beat anyone in the world. So, hopefully, we’re in that frame of mind and form throughout this ODI series,” Matthews said during a pre-game press conference.
With Sunday’s opener set to be the first international contest at the recently-built 40,000-capacity Kotambi International Cricket Stadium, Matthews acknowledged the novelty of the venue and the challenge it presents for both teams.
“It looks like a lovely facility. It’s a pretty new ground, and it feels that way for sure. We’ve noticed it’s a slightly different pitch to what Mumbai looks like—there’s black clay rather than the red clay out in the middle. It’ll come down to who assesses the conditions better,” Matthews noted.
“I always love an even competition when there’s a bit in it for both bat and ball. Hopefully, it’s a wicket that can produce that and make it a really competitive game, and we’re able to adjust really well,” she added.
Though the T20I loss was a bitter pill to swallow, Matthews sees opportunities to build on the positives as well as to address key areas for improvement.
“We just have to look at what went well in the T20 series and try to take the positives out of it while reflecting on the things that didn’t go so well. We know when we’re at our best, we can beat anyone in the world. So we’ve just got to try to show up as early as possible,” Matthews explained.
“We’ve had to pay a lot of attention to Smriti Mandhana after the T20 series because she spent a lot of time at the crease, but she did give us a lot of chances, and we let ourselves down a bit in the field in that respect.
“But we’ve done a lot of homework on their players, and it’ll come down to executing those plans on the day. So hopefully, we’re able to restrict them to a chasable total because we’re quite keen to get going and hopefully have a good series here,” she ended. (Sportsmax)
