Matthews likes leading from the front

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CMC):

West Indies Women’s captain Hayley Matthews says she is relishing the chance to lead from the front after her record-breaking century in the opening One-Day International against Zimbabwe Women on Thursday.

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 in the first of the three-match series. It was her 13th ODI century and the highest individual score by a West Indies woman in the format.

Reflecting on her innings during a post-match press conference, Matthews said she was delighted to play such a pivotal role.

“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 she is determined to convert strong starts into big scores.

“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. 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, I 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.”