KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) — Hayley Matthews, West Indies Women’s captain, has taken the brunt of the responsibility for her side’s recent batting struggles following their 43-run defeat to Australia Women in the opening Twenty20 International (T20I) on Thursday.

The second match is set to be played on Saturday at the same venue. West Indies need a win to stay alive in the three-match series.

West Indies bowlers did well to restrict the visitors to a 164 for six in their 20 overs in the contest on Thursday, but could only get up to 121 for six after being comfortably placed at 76-1 at one point.

Opener Matthews made just 11, with only Qiana Joseph, who made 45 off 39 balls, and Stafanie Taylor, who chipped in with 28 off 25 balls, putting up any real resistance.

Matthews has struggled to get going with the bat since returning to action earlier this year, after having surgery on her injured shoulder in 2025.

Speaking in a post-match interview the skipper admitted that her dip in form was a direct reflection of the team’s batting performances, which were also below par in the recently concluded white-ball series against Sri Lanka during which they lost both the One-Day International and T20I series at home.

“I think we can certainly take the positive out of how we bowled today but over the last few matches we probably been disappointing with the bat.

“I’m obviously in a bit of a rut myself — and that’s probably correlating to how we’re going with the bat — but we certainly as a batting group have to figure out ways to score and ways to get better as a team,” Matthews said.

“I want us to come back strong. It’s going to be really important that we pick ourselves up.”

Reflecting on the team’s performance in the opening T20I, Matthews said the bowlers did a commendable job.

She said while batting conditions were a bit challenging, she maintained the home side should have performed much better.

“We probably figured that around 160 would be a good score for us to be able to chase, so I was pretty happy about the way that went, especially the pacers getting those wickets up front.

“As the Australia innings went on it seemed as if it just slowed up a touch, and then probably played a bit better after it got rolled in the middle of the innings, and then slowed up again towards the end — but it didn’t seem as if the conditions were too bad, we just didn’t execute how we wanted to today,” Matthews said.