Sometime in the early 2010s, a Spanish journalist coined the term, “Messidependencia” to illustrate Barcelona’s dependence on their extraterrestrial superstar. Everything in Barcelona, ever since Guardiola’s energies started waning, went through Messi’s feet. As the club would find out over the next few years, it could be a double-edged sword.
The West Indies women’s cricket team have, similarly, a Hayleydependencia. Hayley Matthews is their spearhead, saviour, talisman, and guide. Since the last T20 World Cup, Hayley Matthews has scored 1654 T20 runs—nearly 80% more than Deandra Dottin’s 924.
Unfortunately, in the warm up before tonight’s semi-final, Deandra Dottin suffered an injury which needed her teammates to carry her off the field. So the West Indies were pretty much all looking towards Hayley Mathews. And she took off in spectacular fashion, cover-driving Lucy Hamilton’s first ball and taking West Indies to 23/0 after 2.2 overs.
From there, West Indies could only muster 12 more runs in the powerplay. And while Hayley still had a strike-rate above 100, Qiana Joseph was struggling to get the ball off the square. Both were later part of an incredible spell of 4 lost wickets within 14 balls, at which point the run-rate was below 6 an over, West Indies were playing one batter short, and Australia were rolling through the overs.
Dottin eventually came in the sixteenth over with West Indies at 83/6. The last ball of the 19th over would be the first time the run-rate would touch 6 an over since the ninth. A flurry of boundaries from Dottin took West Indies to 125 at the end of their innings—hardly enough to cause too many creases on Aussie foreheads.
At the end of the powerplay, Mooney alone had six more than West Indies’ score. By the end of the tenth over, Australia were nearly at 100.
Australia wrapped up the chase in 13 overs. Any sparks in the chase were triggered by Beth Mooney and Ashleigh Gardner’s thrilling strokeplay. Mooney, especially, was a sight to behold, her shots as piercing as they were pleasing.
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Nothing in the arc: Hayley Matthews and Qiana Joseph batted through the powerplay and managed all of 35 runs. Matthews finished with 30(28) balls—well below her usual explosive strike-rates. The Australian bowlers gave them absolutely nothing in their hitting arc, keeping everything on good length and shorter on a sluggish track.
Images courtesy Cricinfo Gameboard -
Australia go hard: For the Australian batters, the target or the conditions were almost secondary. Starting with Voll’s first ball cover-drive, they went as hard as they possibly could. By the tenth over itself, they were within touching distance of the target.
Screengrab from Cricinfo at the 10-over mark in Australia’s innings
Australia have reached their eighth T20 World Cup final. They’ve won six out of their previous seven. West Indies won the other one—one of their two T20I victories over Australia in twenty games. It’s an unfortunate head-to-head record, and the abyss between the teams showed tonight.