Matthews: It will be critical to assess new conditions | Sport

On By Littum

VADODARA, India:

West Indies women’s captain Hayley Matthews believes that the team that quickly assesses the conditions at the new Kotambi International Cricket Stadium will win in the first One Day International (ODI) today.

The venue, which can hold 40,000 spectators, will host its first international match when West Indies take on India in the opening match of the three-match series.

In a pre-match press conference yesterday, Matthews said quick adaptation to the conditions would be the Windies’ main focus.

“It depends on who assesses the conditions better. So hopefully we’re able to go out there and adjust really well.

“It’s a new ground and very unfamiliar so we’ll have to be sharp when it comes to the mental side of the game and figure out what we need to do to play some really good cricket,” Matthews said.

“We haven’t played it yet so I don’t know exactly how it’s going to play out. I always love a close contest when there’s a bit in it for the bat and the ball. I think I speak as an all-rounder , who says so.

“But hopefully it’s a wicket that can produce a bit at both ends to make it a really competitive game,” she added.

The visitors go into the match on the back of a 2-1 defeat in the previous T20 series.

However, Matthews said despite this result, the Windies were still confident of winning the ODI series.

“Playing India, it’s always going to be really tough, but we’ve also got a squad full of really fantastic players who are quite capable of coming down here and being successful.

“I think we showed in the second T20 that we are a competitive team who, when we are at our best, can beat anyone in the world,” maintained Matthews.

“So hopefully we are in that kind of frame of mind for that kind of cricket throughout this ODI series and we can compete right through.

“We have to look at what went well in the T20 series and try to take the positives out of it and reflect on the things that didn’t go so well and try to sharpen those areas.

“As a team we’re still pretty confident because like I said we know when we’re at our best we can beat anyone in the world so we’ve just got to try and turn up as early as possible,” she added. .

CMC