Matthews storm thrashes Sri Lanka in their final group league match

Windies record an 84-run win over Sri Lanka and qualify for the semi-finals of World T20. Hayley Matthews' all-round performances thrashed their opponent at Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, St Lucia on November 17.

Batting first, Windies got off a flying start. Openers Hayley Matthews and Deandra Dottin started hitting all around the park from the very first over. As they put up 29 runs within 3 overs, captain Athapaththu gave the ball to the veteran Shashikala Siriwardene to break the partnership and Matthews welcomed her with an over the boundary at long-off. The next ball went to long on for the boundary.

The third boundary of the over came on the fourth ball and they managed to score 72 runs in the powerplay, which is their highest score in the powerplay. Once they got her eye in, it became difficult to get past their bat as they played strokes all around the ground. They both took the particular liking to the spinners and added 94 runs before Matthews finally fell for 62 by giving an easy catch to Perera at point.

Dangerous Dottin was still there on the crease, scored a 35-ball 49 before Prabhodhani trapped her leg before. Captain Stafanie Taylor took the charge and anchored the innings till the end, smashing 4 fours and 2 sixes. Cooper's last ball six ended their innings at 187/5.

Chasing 188, Sri Lanka got off to a slow start. Hasini Perera got dismissed in the 3rd over by Selman. Athapaththu then hit three back to back boundaries as they scored 33/2 within the powerplay. Pressure fell upon the middle order batters. Captain along with Siriwardene tried to resurrect the innings but Siriwardene fell for 6 by giving an easy catch to mid-off region.

Lokusuriyage tried her best but got dismissed by Dottin. Athapaththu got out to an excellent overhead catch from Matthews after scoring 44. No other batters were able to build a partnership as the wickets started falling at regular intervals. Matthews scalped three wickets, Selman, Taylor, Fletcher and Dottin picked up one each; which dismantled Sri Lanka's batting order and restricted them within 104.