Matthews Again, and This Time With Company: West Indies Women Take the Harare Decider by 91 Runs

Deciders have a way of finding out who your best player is, and then asking her to do it one more time. Hayley Matthews had made 182 in the first ODI and 26 in the second, and the series had followed her score both times. So when Zimbabwe Women won the toss at Harare Sports Club and chose to field — and why not, they had chased their way level three days earlier — the whole afternoon came down to a simple question. Could they get Matthews early?

They could not. West Indies Women 271 for 5. Zimbabwe Women 180 all out in 47.3 overs. Matthews made 118 from 113 balls, Shemaine Campbelle made 96 alongside her, and a chase that was 9 for 2 in the third over was always going to be a long walk uphill. West Indies Women won by 91 runs and take the three-match series 2-1. Matthews, with 326 runs across the three games, was Player of the Match and Player of the Series, and nobody needed a second opinion on either.

The first ten overs told you two different stories from the two ends. West Indies Women were 38 without loss at the end of the powerplay, which sounds sedate until you learn that Matthews had 34 of them. Realeanna Grimmond, at the other end, was having one of those mornings where the ball and the bat are not on speaking terms — 3 from 27 balls before Nomvelo Sibanda bowled her at 38 in the 11th over. Zimbabwe Women had kept the scoreboard quiet. They had not kept Matthews quiet, and that is a very different thing.

What followed was the partnership the second ODI never had. In that match, you will remember, West Indies Women lost six wickets for 32 once Matthews was out. This time Campbelle, who had made 3 in that collapse, walked in and simply stayed. The two of them added 160 from 168 balls for the second wicket. The hundred came up in 22.1 overs, Matthews reached her fifty from 55 balls and her century from 98, and by the time she was caught by Francisca Chipare off Sibanda in the 39th over, the score was 198 for 2 and the game had a shape Zimbabwe Women did not like.

Campbelle's innings deserves its own paragraph. Fifty from 70 balls, watchful, the junior partner by design; then 46 from her next 49 as she took over once Matthews had gone. She was four short of what would have been her second ODI hundred when Kelis Ndhlovu, diving at midwicket, held a fine catch off Beloved Biza in the 48th over. Ninety-six is a cruel number, but ask the dressing room which they would rather have — a hundred from her, or those 160 with Matthews — and I suspect the answer comes quickly.

Zimbabwe Women did pull things back for a while. Chinelle Henry and Stafanie Taylor went cheaply, and 198 for 2 became 243 for 5. But Jannillea Glasgow, 26 not out from 21 balls, and Jahzara Claxton, 11 not out from 7, took 28 from the last 14 deliveries. The 250 arrived in the 49th over, and 271 was on the board.

In the second ODI, Modester Mupachikwa and Ndhlovu put on 67 for the first wicket and took the sting out of the chase. Here, chasing 272, they were both back in the pavilion inside 14 balls. Mupachikwa was caught by Grimmond off Zaida James for 4, Ndhlovu was caught by Campbelle off Glasgow for 2, and at 9 for 2 after 2.2 overs the home side's most reliable plan had gone before the shine had.

It did not get much easier. Zimbabwe Women were 41 for 3 after the powerplay and 63 for 4 after 17 overs, with Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano's 25 from 42 the only early resistance. From there, the wickets fell at intervals that never allowed a partnership to grow teeth: 85 for 5, 107 for 6, 131 for 7. Two run-outs in the lower order did not help. After 34 overs they were 122 for 6, and the asking rate had long since stopped being a conversation.

Through all of it, Josephine Nkomo batted. She came in at No. 5, got to fifty from 95 balls — an innings of someone holding a door shut — and then, with nothing left to protect, opened her shoulders and finished unbeaten on 74 from 109, with five fours and a six. No other Zimbabwe batter passed 25. It was a proud innings, and it was also a lonely one.

With the ball, Nyasha Gwanzura was once again the pick. Ten overs, three maidens, 1 for 36 on a day when her side conceded 271 is quite something. Sibanda's seven overs brought two maidens and both openers. But Chipare and Olinder Chare, who had gone for 16 and 12 in the second ODI, each went for 52 from their ten here, and Michelle Mavunga's four overs cost 42. The squeeze that won the last match simply was not there once Matthews and Campbelle were set.

It is easy, after 118 and 96, to forget the bowlers. Don't. West Indies Women used six of them and not one of them conceded more than five an over. Zaida James, the most expensive at exactly five, had Mupachikwa's wicket to show for her three overs. Ashmini Munisar was the standout — 10-2-32-2, removing Biza and Sharne Mayers. Afy Fletcher matched her for economy with 1 for 32 from ten. Aaliyah Alleyne bowled both Gwanzura and Mavunga in her 2 for 39.

Glasgow had a lovely all-round day: the late 26 not out, a catch, and a wicket at each end of the innings — Ndhlovu in the third over and Chare to finish the match. And Matthews, because of course she did, bowled six overs for 16 and took a catch. There was one change behind the stumps as well, with Mandy Mangru taking the gloves from Campbelle from the eighth over of the chase.

A hundred and eighteen from 113 balls, eighteen fours and a six. Her second century in three matches, after the 182 in the first ODI. Three hundred and twenty-six runs in the series. You can dress it up, but the plain numbers do the job rather well.

What I liked most was the first ten overs. Her partner was stuck, the bowling was disciplined, and a lesser player might have decided that the sensible thing was to wait with her. Matthews made 34 of the first 38 and ensured that a tight start never became a slow one. That is the difference between a batter who scores runs and a batter who controls an innings. By the time Campbelle arrived, the platform was already built; all that remained was to put the house on it. This series was level because Zimbabwe Women got her for 26 in the second ODI. It was decided because they could not do it twice.

Our preview had West Indies Women as slight favourites, and they won, so the headline call was right. But honesty demands we go further than that. We also called this a genuine 50-50 contest, and a 91-run margin is not what 50-50 looks like. We overweighted the second ODI and underweighted what happens when Matthews bats into the 39th over.

On the players to watch, we split the points. Matthews was our West Indies pick and delivered 118 and both awards. Gwanzura was our Zimbabwe pick, and while 10-3-36-1 was the best spell on her side, it was not the series-turning performance of three days earlier. We also said Zimbabwe Women's path ran through restricting West Indies Women again and Mupachikwa anchoring the chase. Neither happened: the visitors made 271 for 5, and Mupachikwa was out for 4 in the second over.

One more we will own. We wrote that the West Indies response had to come from the whole lineup rather than one player. It came, in the end, from two — Matthews and Campbelle made 214 of the 271. We wondered whether the collapse of the second ODI would linger. It did not.

West Indies Women leave Harare with the series, 2-1, and with a clear picture of what works for them: Matthews at the top, a partner who will bat time with her, and a six-strong attack that does not leak. The caution is that the two wins in this series were built on two Matthews hundreds, and the one defeat came when she made 26. Campbelle's 96 was the most encouraging thing about this match precisely because it came from somebody else.

Zimbabwe Women should not let the margin of the decider colour the whole series. They won an ODI against this side, they found a match-winner in Gwanzura, and Nkomo's unbeaten 74 showed there is fight in the middle order even when the top has gone. The lesson is about what happens when the target is 272 rather than 140 — the openers have to give them a start, and the bowlers need a second plan for when the first one does not get Matthews out.