Captain Hayley Matthews demonstrated her exceptional skills with a stellar performance in the decisive match, leading the West Indies to break a 12-year drought. They secured a series-clinching six-wicket victory over South Africa in the third T20I at Cave Hill.

Matthews (65 off 50) played a brilliant half-century to anchor the West Indies’ run chase, with Shemaine Campbelle (42 off 38) proving to be the ideal partner. The Caribbean side successfully chased South Africa’s total of 147/6 with nine deliveries to spare.

This victory helped the West Indies clinch a 2-1 series win over the Proteas, marking the first time they had triumphed over South Africa in a bilateral T20I series since 2013, as reported by the ICC.

Opting to bat first after winning the toss, South Africa set a respectable target of 147 for six in their 20 overs, thanks to Miane Smith’s maiden T20 half-century.

However, Matthews was in sublime form during the reply, striking nine fours and one huge six to steer the West Indies towards victory.

Although Matthews was dismissed by Sune Luus for 65 in the 16th over, giving South Africa a glimmer of hope, Chinelle Henry (20 not out) used her experience to guide the hosts to a win.

Despite the series loss, South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt noted several positive takeaways from the tour of the West Indies.
“Disappointed about today’s result, of course, particularly as I thought we had enough runs. But we didn’t get our bowling lines right – they scored too many runs square of the wicket, and we got a few small things wrong. But Hayley played so well, it’s difficult to get her out. Overall,l on the to, ur think we unearthed some good young talent who put their hands up and made a good contribution to the team," Wolvaardt said.