NEWS
Follow UsWest Indies skipper Hayley Mathews was pumped ahead of their semi-final clash against New Zealand in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024. The Bajan woman feels that the job is yet not finished for her or her side, just by making it to the semi-final.
“No one kind of had us to get to this stage so I think we're all pretty happy that we've made it here but like I keep saying the job's just not finished yet,” Mathews said in the pre-match press conference on October 17 (Thursday).
“We've got our eyes locked on the game tomorrow ready for New Zealand and hopefully ready to play a really big game because we do want to win and we don't want to just come to this World Cup to say hey we've made the semi-finals and we're happy with that We want to take it even further,” added the 26-year-old.
Talking about the fitness of Stephanie Taylor, who was out with an injury in West Indies’ last game against England, Mathews said, “I think they're still monitoring her. It's day by day at the moment. But yeah, we're just hoping she'll be alright. But if not, we'll be out there playing for her again.”
Addressing the elephant in the room that West Indies women are nothing without Mathews herself, Deandra Dottin and Taylor, the skipper stressed that the youngsters are ready to take the responsibility now.
“The girls underneath us probably didn't have much opportunity to be any better than they were but they've sacrificed a lot and they've been training hard. Seeing players like Qiana Joseph and Aaliyah Alleyne in the way she's been bowling. Karishma Ramharack she's someone else who kind of came into the spotlight last year in the World Cup and she's been able to play some massive roles again for us this year,” she said.
Joseph hit a match-winning half-century against England to take them through to the semi-final.
Speaking about the biggest outcome that the Windies women could achieve by winning this tournament, Mathews hoped that it would improve the standard of grassroots training facilities in the Caribbean and develop quality cricketers.
“If we can go out there do well and on the back of that, there's so much more of a system put in place for our girls. If you look at it, you see the best teams in the world are the ones that have the system. Australia, England, they've got, I don't know exactly the number, but they've got plenty of professional contracts, and not only at the international level but right through. So hopefully we can see something like that happening for us,” she said.
The winner of the second semi-final on October 9 will meet South Africa in the final on October 20.
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