Ireland Women tour of West Indies: Series Digest

All the reports and updates from Ireland Women's tour of the West Indies 2023. You can view the full tour schedule here.

July 9 - 3rd T20I, St. Lucia

A stellar all-round effort from Hayley Matthews (4/14 and 48) powered West Indies to a thumping 8-wicket win that sealed the series 3-0 in their favour. The recurring theme of the series has been Ireland's batting ineptitude and that carried into the final game where they limped to 116/9. That this was their best total of the series paints the grim batting picture. Even as opener Amy Hunter (44 off 35) and Orla Prendergast (40 off 49) attempted to change the narrative, the batters around them folded meekly. Offspinner Hayley Matthews picked four wickets for just 14 runs as she dented the lower middle order. As many as four Irish batters fell for ducks as Cherry Fraser picked two wickets.

West Indies lost opener Djenaba Joseph in the second over Matthews took centrestage for the second time in the game to forge an 80-run stand with Aaliyah Alleyne. Matthews threw her bat around for eight fours in her 34-ball 48 to all but end Irish hopes. Alleyne saw the chase through, finishing unbeaten on 49.

Brief Scores: Ireland 116/9 in 20 overs (Amy Hunter 44, Orla Prendergast 40; Hayley Matthews 4-14, Cherry Fraser 2-19) lost to West Indies117/2 in 18.1 overs (Aaliyah Alleyne 49, Hayley Matthews 48; Georgina Dempsey 1-21) by 8 wickets

July 7 - 2nd T20I, St Lucia

A clinical performance from West Indies saw them register a comfortable eight-wicket win to seal the three-match series with a game to spare. For the second game running, Ireland put up an underwhelming batting performance after being put into bat. With Gaby Lewis falling early, the visitors lacked the early impetus and the innings struggled to get any sort of tempo through the PowerPlay and the middle overs. West Indies bowlers on their part used the sluggish nature of the surface perfectly, particularly skipper Hayley Matthews and Cherry Ann Fraser, to put the squeeze on the run scoring.

It took a few blows at the fag end from Rebecca Stokell and Arlene Kelly to get the total past the three-figure mark. Despite their fight with a similar total last game, 113 was at least 15-20 runs short of a par score and West Indies batted with a great degree of comfort in the run chase. Matthews followed up her bowling performance with a crafty half-century to set up the chase. The West Indies skipper had steady stands with opening partner Rashada Williams and Shabika Gajnabi to all but seal the game. By the time Matthews fell, only 28 were needed off 45 balls and Chinelle Henry then joined Gajnabi to make short work of things.

Brief scores: Ireland 113/7 in 20 overs (Amy Hunter 33, Laura Delany 20; Cherry Ann Fraser 1-16) lost to West Indies 118/2 in 16.4 overs (Hayley Matthews 50, Chinelle Henry 22*; Laura Delany 1-12) by eight wickets

July 5 - 1st T20I, St Lucia

West Indies prevailed in a last-ball thriller against Ireland, getting over the line by a very narrow two-wicket margin at St. Lucia on Tuesday (July 4). In a low-scoring game, the visitors got off to a brisk start in the PowerPlay thanks to Gaby Lewis' cameo but once she fell to Hayley Matthews, Ireland's innings went downwards in terms of momentum on a slow two-paced surface. Laura Delany and Eimear Richardson made decent contributions but neither were able to force the pace at will as West Indies' bowlers kept a leash on scoring rate. Losing wickets at regular intervals didn't help either as Ireland crawled their way to a modest total.

On a slowing surface, West Indies needed to get ahead in the PowerPlay but they did anything but that, scoring just 29 off their first six overs for the loss of a wicket. Matthews preferred to drop anchor and to their credit Ireland's bowlers took a cue from their opposition bowlers to make full use of the sluggish track. A couple of run outs turned the tide in the tourists' favour and it took a few hits from Afy Fletcher to get the equation to run-a-ball margins. West Indies still needed 14 off the last two overs but with four wickets in hand, not many expected it to go right down to the wire. It came down to two needed off the final ball but Cara Murray gave away a wide and the extra ball cost Ireland eventually.

Brief scores: Ireland 112-7 in 20 overs (Laura Delany 34; Hayley Matthews 3-22, Cherry Ann Fraser 2-22) lost to West Indies 113/8 in 20 overs (Hayley Matthews 37; Artene Kelly 3-23, Aimee Maguire 1-18) by two wickets

July 4

WI trio get call-up for T20Is

West Indies have handed maiden T20I call-ups to Zaida James, Ashmini Munisar, and Djenaba Joseph for the upcoming three-match series. The trio have been part of West Indies women's Under-19 set up.

West Indies T20I squad: Hayley Matthews (captain), Shemaine Campbelle (vice-captain), Aaliyah Alleyne, Shamilia Connell, Chinelle Henry, Afy Fletcher, Cherry Ann Fraser, Shabika Gajnabi, Zaida James, Djenaba Joseph, Qiana Joseph, Ashmini Munisar, Stafanie Taylor, Rashada Williams.

"The selection panel decided to retain the players who completed the ODI series," chief selector Ann Browne-John said. "These players have shown form and performance which enabled the team to secure a series win, which the team has been striving for in recent times.

"As we continue the rebuilding, we believe we have found a competent balance in mix of senior players and the younger players selected. It is in keeping with our ethos of preparing the next batch of West Indies women's players, by combining the experienced and the newly capped players."

The three fixtures will all be played at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground in St. Lucia on July 4, 6 and 8.

July 1 - 3rd ODI, St. Lucia

Fifties from Stafanie Taylor and Chinelle Henry guided West Indies to a comfortable six-wicket win in the final game of the ODI series against Ireland in St. Lucia, thereby pocketing the three-match series 2-0. Chasing a modest target of 204, the hosts lost skipper Hayley Matthews quite early and were in a bit of strife at 94/4 in the 21st over before Taylor and Henry joined hands. Their unbroken 110-run stand came off just 99 balls with a flurry of eye-catching strokes. Ireland were guilty of extras - they gave away a whopping 37 runs in extras - and it hurt them. Earlier on, Gaby Lewis' unbeaten 95 enabled the tourists to crawl their way to 203 in the allotted 50 overs. Lewis played a composed innings even as wickets kept falling at the other end. Ava Canning and Cara Murray gave some support to Lewis and this helped Ireland to breach the 200-run mark. In the end, the total was still below-par.

Brief scores: Ireland 203 in 50 overs (Gaby Lewis 95; Shamilia Connell 2-16, Cherry Fraser 2-20) lost to West Indies 204/4 in 41.1 overs (Stefanie Taylor 79*, Chinelle Henry 53*; Aimee Maguire 2-24) by six wickets

June 28 - 2nd ODI, St. Lucia

Rain played spoilsport as the second match of the series was abandoned after just 8.4 overs were bowled. With bad weather around, West Indies skipper Hayley Matthews opted to bowl but the start of the game was delayed considerably due to the rain. The match did finally begin and Ireland found themselves in a hole, being reduced to 36/5 before the rains had the final say. West Indies new-ball pairing of Shamilia Connell and Aaliyah Alleyne shared two wickets apiece while Matthews picked up a wicket as well. For Ireland, Orla Prendergast was stuck at one end as wickets kept falling at the other end. The final ODI of the series will be a day-night affair and will be played on Saturday (July 1).

Brief scores: Ireland Women 36/5 in 8.4 overs (Aaliyah Alleyne 2-4, Shamilia Connell 2-14) vs West Indies Women

June 26 - 1st ODI, St. Lucia

Captain Hayley Matthews scored a fine 109 - her fourth century in WODIs - as West Indies eased to a 1-0 series lead against Ireland. Having opted to bat, Matthews' century and her 156-run stand with Stafanie Taylor powered the hosts to 297, a total they defended rather easily to win by 58 runs.

West Indies lost a sedate Zaida James in the 10th over before the experienced duo of Matthews and Taylor took over to put the innings on track. The latter fell for 55 in the 35th over and four balls later, West Indies also lost the centurion Matthews. From 192/1, the hosts slipped to 198/4 before Chinelle Henry took over and struck a quickfire 37-ball 53* to power the total towards 300.

Ireland tried to keep pace in chase and reached 172/2 in the 36th over before the impressive Gaby Lewis fell for 83. The pressure of the mounting required-rate was too much to keep up with for the rest of the line-up and they finished well short. Matthews followed her century with figures of 3 for 53 from her 10 overs.

Brief scores: West Indies Women 297/6 in 50 overs (Hayley Matthews 109, Stafanie Taylor 55; Cara Murray 3-60) beat Ireland Women 239/9 in 50 overs (Gaby Lewis 83; Hayley Matthews 3-53, Afy Fletcher 2-49) by 58 runs.