Australia Wary of Matthews Threat

Hayley Matthews is the first to admit that she has not yet fired at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 but Australia are only too aware of her threat ahead of Tuesday’s semi-final.

While Australia, ranked number one in the world, enjoyed an imperious time of it in the groups, completing a fourth win from four with a record ICC Women’s T20 World Cup chase to beat India at Lord’s on Sunday, the Windies’ path to The Oval was rather more complicated.

After winning their first three matches, the world’s seventh ranked side fell to defeats to England and then Ireland in Bristol, the latter loss leaving them relying on New Zealand to lose their final game.

Thankfully for Matthews and her team, the hosts pulled off a brilliant chase of their own against the White Ferns, allowing the Windies to progress.

The West Indian skipper is keen to make the most of that reprieve and produce a significant knock, having scored just 115 in five innings so far, while relying on some more under-the-radar teammates to step up in the group stages.

She said: “We’re going to need big performances from big players. I think we’re certainly going to need a standout individual performance.

“But I think to beat a team like Australia, you still need more than one player, and we’re going to have to have our best players really stepping up to the plate tomorrow.

“I feel like players like Aliyah Alleyne, Jahzara Claxton, they’ve been great role players throughout the tournament. And I think with our stars alongside players like them really playing massive roles, we’re going to have to put together an all-round game as a group.

“We haven’t had our best match yet. We haven’t had the likes of myself or Deandra Dottin in the runs really. And that leaves a lot of room for improvement for us as a team. So hopefully we can see some of us stepping up a bit more and taking it to the Aussies.”

Matthews knows as well as anyone what it takes to thrive against Australia. Three years ago, she scored sensational 132 from just 64 balls as the Windies completed the biggest chase in the history of WT20I, reaching a target of 213 with a ball to spare.

That came after she had scored an unbeaten 99 in the first game of a bilateral series Down Under, while Matthews’ 45-ball 66 paved the way for the West Indies to win this title a decade ago.

Ellyse Perry is one of the few survivors from the Australian team that was beaten that day at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

And unsurprisingly, she was keen to focus on the future rather than that defeat, particularly after back-to-back half-centuries, her first and second at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.

She said: “We don’t want that kind of bad juju. I mean, what’s that, 10 years ago? The game has changed so much in that period of time. And I just think like you cannot pull things, can’t even pull things from last match because it’s crazy how sport works.

“We’ve played each other quite a lot in the last couple of months. We actually had a tour to the West Indies earlier this year. We’ve played each other in a warm-up match, so we’re sort of quite familiar with each other at the moment.

“They’ve got some tremendously talented and dangerous players with a lot of experience. So it will be a great challenge for us. It’s a quick turnaround too at a different venue, so I think we’re really looking forward to it.”

As well as Matthews, Deandra Dottin is another potential match-winner for the Windies, who has not yet exploded in the competition.

And Ash Gardner, part of a 100-run partnership with Perry in Australia’s win over India, knows exactly what a threat Dottin can be, having played with her for the Gujarat Giants.

She added: “The West Indies are a completely different threat (to India). They’ve got a lot of class and a lot of firepower within their team.

“Also a lot of experience, obviously led brilliantly by Hayley Matthews, who is a player that can take away a game pretty quickly. But then you look at someone like Deandra Dottin, she’s a threat in all three phases of the game.

“She’s a fantastic player. I’ve had the privilege of playing with her, and seeing how she goes about her cricket, she’s so fearless in the way that she approaches it, which sometimes can be quite scary because she can flick a switch pretty quickly.”

Yeah, they’re a completely different threat. You know, they’ve got a lot of class and a lot of firepower within their team. Also a lot of experience, obviously led brilliantly by Hayley Matthews, who’s a player that can take away a game pretty quickly. But then you look at someone like Deandra Dottin, she’s a threat in all three phases of the game. She’s a fantastic player. I’ve had the privilege of playing with her, and I guess just seeing how she goes about her cricket, she’s so fearless in the way that she approaches it, which sometimes can be quite scary because she can flick a switch pretty quickly. But then just to see the, I guess, inexperience as well that they’ve got and that rawness that they’ve got within their side. So yeah, they definitely pose a different threat. But luckily enough, we’ve played a series against them quite recently. So I guess we can do our homework in terms of how we’re going to approach a new venue, a fast venue, one that’s really nice to bat on. So for us, it’s being able to do our homework really quickly because we’ve got a day to do it. And then a really quick turnaround and then just get really excited for what the occasion is.”