ICC Women’s T20 World Cup: Ashley Gardner says Australia need to be wary of West Indies captain Hayley Mathews’ firepower in semi-finals | cricket news

Ashley Gardner says Australia must be wary of a dangerous West Indies side featuring Hayley Mathews and Dendra Dottin as they prepare for Tuesday’s first ICC Women’s T20 World Cup semi-final at The Oval, live on Sky Sports.

Six-time champions Australia are favorites going into Sunday’s final as they topped Group 1, having won all five of their matches, while West Indies’ path to the last four was a little less straightforward.

They narrowly missed out on a berth in the semi-finals after a six-wicket loss to Ireland, which opened the door for New Zealand to qualify. In the end, West Indies were handed a lifeline by England’s Danny Watt-Hodge, who produced an incredible batting performance in the final Group 2 match to knock the White Ferns out of the tournament and oust Matthews’ side.

Australia and the West Indies are familiar opponents, with vice-captain Gardner’s side claiming T20I and ODI series wins against Mathews’ side in March and April before meeting in a warm-up match leading up to the tournament.

Gardner knows the destructive power that Mathews and Dottin have with the bat, even if both players have struggled to score runs so far during the tournament.

“West Indies are a completely different threat (to India). They have a lot of class and a lot of firepower in their team,” Gardner said.

“They also have a lot of experience, obviously led brilliantly by Matthews, who is a player who can take a game away very quickly. But then you look at someone like Dottin, he’s a threat in all three phases of the game.

“He’s a great player. I’ve had the chance to play with him, and seeing how he goes about his cricket, he’s so fearless in the way he approaches it, which can be quite scary at times because he can flip a switch very quickly.”

Mathews scored 48 off 37 deliveries to help his team beat defending champions New Zealand by seven wickets in the opening game of the tournament.

It was his highest score so far in the World Cup, with the West Indies captain scoring 14, 17, 14 and 22 in his next four matches.

Dottin also fought with the bat. His highest score during the tournament, 21, came during the loss to Ireland, Dottin scored 72 runs in five innings during the tournament.

Nevertheless, Mathews knows his side’s big names will have to stand up if they are to repeat their feat of 2016, when the West Indies beat Australia in the final to be crowned World Twenty20 champions.

“We’re going to need big performances from big players. I think we’re definitely going to need a great individual performance,” Mathews said.

“But I think to beat a team like Australia you still need multiple players, and our best players really need to step up to the plate.

“I think players like Aaliyah Alleyne, Jahzara Claxton, they’ve played a great role throughout the tournament. And I think with our stars as well as players like them playing a really big role, we’ve got to put together an all-round game.

“We haven’t had our best match yet. We didn’t have the choice of ourselves or Diandra Dottin in terms of runs. And that leaves a lot of room for us as a team to improve. So hopefully we’ll see some of us step up a bit and take it to the Aussies.”

Mathews holds the record for scoring runs against Australia in the T20 format. He scored the most runs (507) of any opposition player in the T20I format against Australia, notably giving Australia a nightmare in Sydney in 2023, when he scored his personal highest T20 score of 132 off 64 deliveries, helping his team to a 213-run chase.

Ellis Perry also featured in the 2016 World Cup final against the West Indies, during which Matthews produced a player-of-the-match performance of 66 off 45 balls, while Dottin also notably took figures of 2–33.

The Australian all-rounder is keen to focus on the future rather than relive the heartache of 2016.

“We don’t want that kind of bad poker,” Perry said. “I mean, what’s that 10 years ago? The game has changed a lot in that time. And I think you can’t even pull stuff from the last match because how the game works is crazy.

“We’ve played a lot with each other in the last few months. We actually toured the West Indies earlier this year. We played each other in a warm-up match, so we’re pretty familiar with each other at the moment.

“They’ve got some incredibly talented and dangerous players with a lot of experience. So it’s going to be a big challenge for us. It’s also a quick change to a different venue, so I think we’re really looking forward to it.”

Watch Australia vs West Indies on Sky Sports for free via the Sky Sports app from 2pm on Tuesday.

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Watch every ball of the Women’s T20 World Cup live exclusively on Sky Sports and now Final at Lord’s on July 5.