With a stellar all-round show at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, Matthews gave everybody, not least the noisy stand next to the sightscreen at the commentators’ box end, a polite reminder of the brilliance she can conjure up. One that continues to give West Indies hope as they look to rise from a lowish phase.
Royal Challengers were done in almost single-handedly by Matthews. After an 11-run opening over, in which Smriti Mandhana and Sophie Devine hit a four and a six respectively, she came back in the last over of the powerplay to dismiss Mandhana. She tossed one up outside off, enticing Mandhana to give her the charge before the dip and turn meant that the batter sliced it to point. On the very next ball, she slipped in a full one that went under Heather Knight’s flick to dismiss her for a first-ball duck.
Matthews had helped Mumbai win the first bit of the arm-wrestle against Royal Challangers.
Matthews dashed any semblance of those hopes. She used the width provided by Renuka Singh to steer one past point in the opening over before flicking one through square leg in the third. She then heaved left-arm spinner Preeti Bose over deep square leg before going back to a half-tracker and punching it over covers.
Megan Schutt, who earlier scored a 14-ball 20, was next in Matthews’ firing line. Matthews first punched one through the covers before timing the straight drive past the bowler as Mumbai cruised to 54 for 1 at the end of the powerplay, with Bose trapping Bhatia for the only wicket in the phase.
Even after the fielding restrictions were lifted, Matthews hit Renuka for two fours in an over and eventually brought up her half-century – after narrowly missing out in the opening encounter – off just 26 balls with Mumbai on 95 for 1 at the ten-over mark. Nat Sciver-Brunt’s canter was reduced to a postscript.
Thereon, Mumbai knocked off the remaining 61 runs in 26 balls to register a second thumping win. Matthews was walking back with a huge smile and an unbeaten 77 off just 38 balls with Nat contributing 55 not out off 29.
After those exploits, only two words explain Matthews finding no picks in the first round of the WPL auction – “auction dynamics”.