West Indies captain Hayley Matthews continued her smashing form in whatever cricket she is playing, regardless of the format, venue, or opposition, as she hit her third T20I century in the series opener against England in Canterbury. Matthews had to do everything alone after the visitors were pegged back early by Lauren Bell, having lost the toss. Matthews kept building small partnerships with the likes of Realeanna Grimmond, Shabika Gajnabi to keep the innings going.
The wickets kept falling regularly. Whether it was Linsey Smith, Emily Arlott, or the returning Issy Wong, West Indies kept losing wickets at regular intervals before final Matthews found a partner who stuck around for more than five overs in Mandy Mangru and the Windies captain really went berserk in that stand. Matthews completed her century off 67 balls on the last delivery of the innings, but 146 was never going to be enough.
Led by Sophia Dunkley's 46-ball 81, England chased down the target rather comfortably with 21 balls to spare. Matthews, who now has the joint-second highest number of centuries in women's T20Is, surpassed Deandra Dottin to have the highest T20I tons for the Windies.
Matthews also joined the likes of Chamari Athapaththu and Beth Mooney on the short list of players with centuries in women's T20Is in a losing cause. Athapaththu and Matthews both achieved the unwanted record while being captains.
Most centuries in women's T20Is
4 - Esha Oza (UAE), in 93 innings
3 - Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka), in 143 innings
3 - Fatuma Kibasu (Tanzania), in 44 innings
3 - Hayley Matthews (West Indies), in 107 innings
Most T20I centuries for West Indies (women)
3 - Hayley Matthews, in 107 innings
2 - Deandra Dottin, in 135 innings
It was a winning start for Nat Sciver-Brunt and Charlotte Edwards as captain and coach but for West Indies to overcome the hosts, they will need contributions from other players as well.