West Indies defeated England by six wickets as Hayley Matthews’ side joined South Africa in advancing from Group B at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. Chasing a target of 142, openers Hayley Matthews (50) and Qiana Joseph (52) launched a blistering assault, both scoring half-centuries. A rattled England dropped several chances, and their four wickets came too late to stop the West Indies from sealing the victory with two overs to spare. Earlier, a brilliant performance from Nat Sciver-Brunt had set West Indies a target of 142. England had been reduced to 34/3, with Deandra Dottin starring in the field.
Hayley Mathew, West Indies Women captain, said, Pretty good. I don’t think many people had us reaching that point [semis] in this tournament. Up against the odds tonight but to put up a performance like that with the bat, incredibly proud, Qiana Joseph scoring her first ever 50, what a time to do it man. Probably the first six or seven overs of our innings when batting, it did slide on a bit better. We have been chasing, we back ourselves to go out there and knock off whatever runs that is there on the board. Take tomorrow off and get right back to it. We haven’t won the World Cup yet and it’s gonna be a big game against New Zealand and from here every game is a big game and we are up for the challenge. Pretty close, [to perfection] I think we bowled well, we could have probably fielded better, we are peaking at the right time, hopefully we can see something even better in the semis. [on if she wanted anything more than this in her 100th T20I] Couldn’t be any better, this is what I hoped for when I came in today.