Hayley Matthews scored a remarkable century against England at Canterbury, reaching the milestone off the final ball of the innings in which the next highest score was 17.
Matthews opened the batting in the first T20I of England's home summer, getting off the mark off her first ball from Lauren Bell with a boundary. She scored another at the end of the over, and hit the first six of the innings off Linsey Smith in the third over of the powerplay.
However, she found little support from the other end, and watched as the first two wickets went down within three balls. She took the majority of the strike from there on out, reaching her half-century off 38 balls shortly before the next wicket fell.
Off the fifth ball of the penultimate over of the innings, Mandy Mangru was caught at short fine leg by Bell as the seventh West Indies wicket to fall. Stranded at the non-striker's on 89, Matthews turned down a single off the final ball of the over to keep strike for the 20th. She sprinted hard to take two off the first ball, and hit a full toss behind square for a four off the next to take herself to 95.
A superb third T20I century from Hayley Matthews in Canterbury - the next highest score in West Indies' innings was 17.#ENGvWI pic.twitter.com/BQWz7FhzEP
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) May 21, 2025
After seeing out two dots, she took her opportunity off a re-bowled wide to hit another four off the fifth ball, leaving her on 99* with one ball of the innings remaining. Scuffing a full ball to backward square, she set off immediately to come through for a single and reach her third T20I century.
Not only did that century make Matthews only the fourth woman to score three or more T20I centuries, but it also gave her a rare feat among lone batting efforts. West Indies' first innings total at only 146-7 is the lowest in a women's T20I to contain an individual hundred. Astonishingly, Matthews came close to achieving that record in 2023, when she finished not out on 99 in another first innings score of 147 in a T20I against Australia.
Only two other West Indies' batters broke into double figures in Canterbury, combining to score 40 runs between them – Matthews scoring 71.4 per cent of their runs off the bat, with six extras conceded.
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