Gros Islet [Saint Lucia], July 5 : West Indies captain Hayley Matthews' mettle innings of 37 off 42 provided a last-ball win to her side against Ireland in the first T20I match on Wednesday.
Matthews also performed with her bowling as she took 3 for 22 in four overs to restrict Ireland to 112 in Gros Islet to win the opening game of the three-match series by two wickets.
West Indies were struggling in the match as they slipped from a comfortable 40 for 1 in the ninth over to a challenging 74 for 5 in the fifteenth, but Shemaine Campbelle's single off the penultimate delivery of the game gave them the victory.
Arlene Kelly had taken control of the game after dismissing two batters in consecutive balls, first, she send top scorer Matthews to the pavilion and then took the wicket of Zaida James. However, West Indies somehow won the match in the last ball.
For Ireland, Arlene Kelly was the pick of the bowler with three wickets conceding 21 runs. Cara Murray and Aimee Maguire took one wicket each.
Earlier, being asked to bat, Ireland's batting faltered after an opening stand of 28 off 23 balls between Gaby Lewis and Amy Hunter. After then Ireland lost three wickets for 16 runs, with Cherry-Ann Fraser taking two of those wickets by dismissing Hunter and Orla Prendergast after Matthews had struck first to get Lewis out.
Ireland's skipper Laura Delany and Eimear Richardson steered the innings with thier 31-run partnership for the fourth-wicket stand. But Ashmini Munisar broke the partnership taking Eimear Richardson's wicket.
Delany, who had scored 34, was dismissed by Matthews, but Ireland, who eventually fought hard to give the target of 113.
Apart from Matthews, Cherry-Ann Fraser got the scalp of two batters for 22 runs. Ashmini Munisar and Afy Fletcher cleared up a one-one wicket each.
Brief scores: Ireland 112/7 (Laura Delany 34, Eimear Richardson 22, Hayley Matthews 3-22) vs West Indies 113/8 (Hayley Matthews 37, Afy Fletcher 19, Arlene Kelly 3-21).
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