Aussies overcome Matthews blitz to start summer in style

Alyssa Healy celebrated her 250th appearance in the green and gold in style, smacking a fifty as Australia kicked off the international summer with an emphatic eight-wicket T20I victory over West Indies.

Hayley Matthews’ swashbuckling 99 not out off just 74 balls had powered West Indies to 3-147 after they were sent in by Australian skipper Healy in the series opener at North Sydney Oval.

But despite losing opener Beth Mooney (11) early, Healy (56 from 29 balls) and Tahlia McGrath (60no from 32) put on 85 runs in 6.4 overs to ensure the hosts made light work of their target, reaching it with 40 balls to spare against a young West Indies attack.

Healy, who on Sunday became the third Australian woman to play 250 international matches, rode her luck and made the tourists pay after being given lives on 27 and 44.

Her half-century came off just 25 balls as Australia passed the 100-mark in the ninth over and while she departed shortly after, the hosts were left in a dominant position needing 41 runs off 63 balls.

McGrath’s own half-century was a combination of strength and timing, as she reached fifty in 26 deliveries.

The vice-captain found the boundary eight times and cleared it thrice, while Ashleigh Gardner chipped in with an unbeaten 13 of her own as the Aussies iced victory in the 14th over.

Matthews’ innings, the highest score by a West Indian woman against Australia and her first fifty against Australia since her famous 66 in the 2016 T20 World Cup final, featured 12 fours and four sixes and accounted for 67 per cent of her team’s total.

But her charge towards what would have been her second T20I century was thwarted when she was unable to get herself on strike during the final over.

Shemaine Campbelle – who had joined in the big-hitting fun when she whacked McGrath onto the roof of North Sydney Oval – was stumped off the penultimate ball of the innings, leaving Matthews stranded on 99 at the other end.

The next highest contributor was Campbelle (19 off 21), who was later forced from the field when she was hit in the head after dropping a fierce Healy square-drive.

After Healy sent the Windies in to bat first, Matthews got going in the second over when she slog-swept Ashleigh Gardner for four, then went after another Aussie spinner, hitting Jess Jonassen for four, then pulling her over the deep backward square boundary for six.

Darcie Brown made the first breakthrough for Australia when she had Shabika Gajnabi chopping on for a seven-ball duck in the fourth over.

Stafanie Taylor faced a maiden from Schutt – and was given a life when Georgia Wareham put down a chance at mid-wicket – but as she struggled to get going, at the other end Matthews was in a mood.

She smacked Brown for two fours and a six to see the Windies to 1-38 at the end of the power play, and shortly after brought up a 36-ball fifty.

Australia’s first fielding effort of the international season produced several uncharacteristic midfields and two drops, while their bowlers also gifted an extra 18 runs in extras.

But there was also a piece of magic from Phoebe Litchfield, whose direct hit from extra cover sent Taylor on her way for a 20-ball 10.

No bowler was safe from Matthews’ onslaught; Megan Schutt had leaked just four runs off her first three overs but when she returned in the 19th was dispatched over the rope for the West Indies skipper’s fourth maximum.

Schutt, playing her 100th T20I, nonetheless finished the tidiest of the Australian attack with figures of 0-15 from four overs. Annabel Sutherland (0-17 off thee) was the only other bowler to go at under a run a ball.

Australia and West Indies will meet in the second T20I at North Sydney Oval on Monday night.

CommBank T20s v West Indies 2023

First T20: Australia won by eight wickets

Second T20: October 2, North Sydney Oval, 7.05pm AEDT

Third T20: October 5, Allan Border Field, 7.05pm AEDT

CommBank ODIs v West Indies 2023

First ODI: October 8, Allan Border Field, 10.35am AEDT

Second ODI: October 12, Junction Oval, 10.05am AEDT

First ODI: October 14, Junction Oval, 10.05am AEDT

Australia squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris (T20Is only), Jess Jonassen, Alana King (ODIs only), Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham

West Indies squad: Hayley Matthews (c), Shemaine Campbelle (vc), Aaliyah Alleyne, Shamilia Connell, Afy Fletcher, Cherry Ann Fraser, Shabika Gajnabi, Jannillea Glasgow, Chinelle Henry, Zaida James, Djenaba Joseph, Ashmini Munisar, Karishma Ramharack, Stafanie Taylor, Rashada Williams