Captain Hayley Matthews and her West Indies women’s team will tour Sri Lanka from June 15-28, playing three One-Day Internationals (ODI) and three Twenty/20 matches.
The teams will vie for International Cricket Council (ICC) women’s Championship ODI points in Galle from June 15-21, before contesting the T20 series in Hambantota from June 24-28.
Both teams will be heading into the respective series on the back of recent success. The Matthews-led Windies team recorded a convincing 3-0 ODI series win over Pakistan last month, before completing a 4-1 series victory in the subsequent T20 series.
Matthews, the 2023 ICC women’s T20 player of the year, was in great form, and she walked away with two player of the series awards after a string of impressive performances in both series – taking four player of the match honours in the process. In the ODI series, the 26-year-old twice eclipsed her highest score in the format, including a superb 141 in the third and final match in Karachi on April 23.
Matthews’ brilliance didn’t go unnoticed, and the right-hander was rewarded on May 13 when she picked up the ICC player of the month award for April, her third such accolade. The Barbados allrounder edged out South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt and impressive Sri Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu for the award.
Athapaththu, the number one batter in the women’s ODI game, will be doing her best to defy Matthews and her Windies charges when the Sri Lankans welcome the Caribbean ladies to their shores.
The West Indies currently top the head-to-head battle between the teams in either format, while they also recorded impressive 3-0 series victories in both ODIs and T20s when the teams last met in 2017. The Windies were then led by veteran batter Stafanie Taylor, while the now-retired quartet of Merissa Aguilleira, Deandra Dottin, Kycia Knight and Anisa Mohammed were also in the mix.
The Sri Lankans will be seeking to build momentum ahead of next month’s T20 Asian Cup, which will be held in Sri Lanka. Both teams will try to set the foundation for the ICC T20 women’s World Cup which is being staged in Bangladesh in October. Earlier this month, Athapaththu and Sri Lanka booked their qualification for the showpiece World Cup event after defeating Scotland in the final of the qualifying tournament.
Athapaththu topped the tournament aggregate with 226 runs and she also scored a splendid 102 in the final.
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