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Despite another one-woman show from Hayley Matthews,
who was handicapped on one leg, Darcie Brown’s outstanding fast bowling
performance helped Australia win the T20I series against the West Indies at
Allan Border Field.
Brown produced a match-winning spell of 3 for 20 from
four overs to swing the game and the series in Australia’s favour as Matthews
threatened to rip it away from them. Australia was defending a total of 190 for
9, set up by a stunning 65 off 34 balls from Tahlia McGrath and a
reverse-sweeping and switch-hitting masterclass from Phoebe Litchfield.
Even with the anchor of her opening partner Shabika
Gajnabi who struggled to 16 off 24 balls after Kim Garth and Megan Schutt had
bowled sparingly upfront, West Indies captain raced to 79 from 39 balls to lead
the visitors to 97 without loss after 10.3 overs. Matthews found it difficult
to maintain her shape in the crease and could hardly run. With a
stand-and-deliver approach, she managed to force 11 fours and four sixes
despite Australia fearing a rare home series loss.
However, Brown countered with a deft back-of-the-hand
slower ball to trick Matthews after giving up two straight boundaries from the
first two balls of the eleventh over. She exhaled deeply as she sailed the ball
high to cover where Litchfield took the grab.
Matthews scored 310 runs for just two dismissals at an
absurd strike rate of 174.15 to become the first player in women’s T20I history
to accumulate more than 300 runs in a three-match series. For the third game in
a row in the series and for the eighth time overall, she was awarded player of
the match.
But West Indies felt it was insufficient. Following
her departure, they lost 5 for 7 in 12 balls and suffered a catastrophic
collapse. Stafanie Taylor was taken up by Georgia Wareham after misfiring to
mid-on, and Gajnabi mindlessly ran herself out to end a painful 27-ball innings
of 16. Before Shemaine Campbelle nicked a catch to mid-on, Brown turned up the
pressure and rattled Chinelle Henry’s stumps.
Outside of the two openers, Aaliyah Alleyne was the
only other batter to reach double figures as West Indies were bowled out for
143 in the 20th over. After putting the West Indies under the necessary rate
early on, Garth took up two late wickets to finish with 2 for 24 from four
overs. Ash Gardner claimed 3 for 32 after being put under severe pressure by
Matthews.