West Indies crashed to an eight-wicket defeat against Australia in the semi-final of the T20I World Cup 2026 on Tuesday at The Oval. Asked to bat, they were restricted to 125/7, with Hayley Matthews top-scoring with 30 runs. However, their other batters failed to overcome the challenge presented by Australia Women. For Australia, bowlers Ashleigh Gardner, Georgia Wareham, and Sophie Molineux remained superbly disciplined, taking two wickets each to keep West Indies under pressure. Following a disappointing ending to the team's campaign, Hayley Matthews, speaking about her future, said that she will continue playing for West Indies.
"I want to still play for West Indies, there's no doubt about that. I always feel like West Indies has given me the opportunity to represent myself, to be a part of franchise cricket. And it might be the most stressful thing and probably one of the harder jobs around, but it's where the passion comes from," she said at the press conference.
"I certainly feel personally that I have a real opportunity to not only represent myself but to make a difference. I've seen so many young girls in the Caribbean already probably want to play cricket or take up cricket because of me, and knowing that I have that power and I guess that influence in a country and in a region where women's cricket and women's sports on a whole probably isn't represented massively, hopefully if I could just inspire a few young ladies or a few more young ladies to take up the game."
Despite being knocked out of the tournament, Hayley Matthews wants players to chin up and exit the tournament with their head held high.
"I think, firstly, head up. We're obviously all disappointed. But I keep reiterating all the time the fact that we've made it to this stage of the competition with lack of performances from a lot of our big players speaks volumes to the supporting cast that we have in the team and speaks volumes to those like Aliyah Alleyne and maybe a Jahzara Claxton and a Janillea Glasgow."
"Things used to look a lot different once upon a time, and I certainly feel like the last World Cup or the one before that, if I had the form that I did with the bat and Deandre Dottin did, we would not be in a semifinal right now. So I think we can take a lot of pride from that, knowing that obviously myself and Deandra and Staf, we are part of the team and we are a bit let down, but at the same time you can be so proud of the way that as a unit we were still able to get over the line in a lot of games," she said.