All-round Hayley Matthews helps West Indies sweep Ireland T20Is

Hayley Matthews became the third West Indies player to pick up a hat-trick and put on an all-round performance to bag her third player of the match trophy in a row in the series to help the hosts whitewash Ireland.

Windies chased down Ireland's score with eight wickets in hand with Matthews scoring 48 and putting on a 80-run stand with Aaliyah Alleyne at the Darren Sammy Cricket Stadium in St. Lucia on Saturday (July 8). Earlier in the day, the West Indies captain picked up four-wickets including a hat-trick in her last over.

Opting bat first, Ireland had a much better start compared to the first two matches despite losing the big wicket of Gaby Lewis early. Young Amy Hunter and Orla Prendergaster added 66 runs for the second wicket despite multiple rain delays.

Hunter, in particular, looked really good at the crease as she started the innings with a couple of boundaries in the Shamilia Connell opening over. She then puled the pacer for an impressive six before launching Matthews over long-on for another maximum.

Just when it looked like the duo of Hunter and Prendergast will take Ireland to a competitive total, Hunter was unfortunately dismissed with a run out at the non-striking end as the ball was deflected of the bowler Ashmini Munisar's hand. The 17-year-old scored her career-best T20I score of 44 from just 35 balls.

From there, Prendergast played an uncharacteristic innings at the other end as she struggled to find the boundaries and was eventually dismissed for a 49-ball 40. That opened the floodgates for Ireland and from a comfortable position of 109 for 3, they were reduced to 116 for 9 from the stipulated to 20 overs.

For West Indies, Matthews finished with enviable figures of 4 for 14 from her four overs.

At the heart of that collapse was the brilliant death bowling from Matthews as she bowled full and dismissed Rebecca Stokell - thanks to a brilliant catch from Afy Fletcher, Arlene Kelly, and Ava Canning in consecutive deliveries and the whole West Indies team broke into a celebration.

In the chase, Djenaba Joseph fell early with Prendergast accounting for her, but Matthews and Alleyne made sure that there were no further hiccups and added 80 runs for the second wicket. The West Indies skipper played a flurry of shots and hit eight boundaries in the process whereas Alleyne was happy to play the second fiddle.

Eventhough Matthews fell two runs short of the fifty in the 12th over, Alleyne in the company of Chinelle Henry took West Indies home in the penultimate over to help the hosts to a 3-0 victory in the T20I series.

Brief Scores: Ireland 116/9 in 20 overs (Amy Hunter 44, Orla Prendergast 40; Hayley Matthews 4/14) lost to West Indies 120/2 in 18.1 overs (Aaliyah Alleyne 49*, Hayley Matthews 48; Georgina Dempsey 1/21) by 8 wickets POTM: Hayley Matthews; POTS: Hayley Matthews