ICC Player of the Month award winner for November, Hayley Matthews has been a player to watch out for in 2021. The all-rounder from the West Indies has impressed everyone with her stellar performance which is visible from the ICC ODI all-rounder ranking where Matthews joins her captain Stafanie Taylor in the top 10.
Playing 14 ODIs this year, 8 of which against Pakistan – 5 hosting them in July and 3 in Karachi last month and 5 of the 6 remaining ones against South Africa while the one against Ireland in the World Cup Qualifiers, Matthews made 380 runs at 29.23 with the highest being an unbeaten century against Pakistan in July. She also took 18 wickets with an economy of 3.33 recording the best spell of 4/26 which came last month, once again against Pakistan.
Her November nomination for the player of the month was her second one for the year. She was also nominated in July but her national team captain Stafanie Taylor was adjudged as the winner.
The official website of West Indies Cricket (windiescricket.com) shared Matthews’s reaction after she won the Player of the Month award.
She commented, “It’s exciting to be nominated twice for the year and to be able to come this time and win it now. This is my first time winning this award and what is also rewarding is that I worked so hard throughout the year. As a team, we put in some really good performances and reaped rewards,”
Further, the 23 years old also shared that she was happy to be able to go beyond what her goal for 2021 was with the ball and was satisfied with her consistency with the bat too, though wanted to have one or two more centuries and reach a few more milestones in the year.
Ending her year on a high note, Hayley Matthews now shifts her focus to the ICC Women’s World Cup in March next year. Being a key player for the Windies, the team would be hoping for a great contribution from her with her all-around performance in their race to the big title which starts against the host New Zealand in the opening match of the tournament on March 4.
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