HARARE – A ma­jes­tic cen­tu­ry from cap­tain Hay­ley Matthews and a com­posed sup­port­ing act from She­maine Camp­belle pow­ered West In­dies Women to a com­mand­ing 91-run vic­to­ry over Zim­bab­we Women in the third and de­cid­ing Women’s One Day In­ter­na­tion­al at the Harare Sports Club in Zim­bab­we on Wednes­day.

The win se­cured a 2-1 se­ries tri­umph for the vis­i­tors, who bounced back em­phat­i­cal­ly af­ter a sur­prise loss in the sec­ond match.

Matthews was the undis­put­ed star of the show, earn­ing Play­er of the Match ho­n­ours for her blis­ter­ing 118 off just 112 balls.

The West In­dies skip­per was in im­pe­ri­ous form, an­chor­ing the in­nings af­ter the ear­ly loss of Realean­na Grim­mond for three.

She found a will­ing and able part­ner in Camp­belle, who played a su­perb hand with 96.

The pair came to­geth­er with the score at 38 for one and pro­ceed­ed to dis­man­tle the Zim­bab­wean bowl­ing at­tack, craft­ing a mas­sive 160-run part­ner­ship for the sec­ond wick­et.

Their stand laid the plat­form for a daunt­ing to­tal. Matthews’ in­nings was a mas­ter­class in pac­ing, mix­ing sol­id de­fence with ag­gres­sive stroke play that saw her hit 18 fours and a six be­fore she was even­tu­al­ly caught off the bowl­ing of Nomvelo Siban­da.

Camp­belle, who fell ag­o­nis­ing­ly short of her own cen­tu­ry when she was caught for 96, was equal­ly im­pres­sive with 13 fours.

Siban­da was the pick of the Zim­bab­wean bowlers, fin­ish­ing with fig­ures of 2 for 42, while Beloved Biza al­so claimed two wick­ets.

A late cameo from Jan­nil­lea Glas­gow (26 not out) and Jahzara Clax­ton (11 not out) en­sured the West In­dies Women reached a for­mi­da­ble 271 for 5 from their al­lot­ted 50 overs.

In re­ply, the Zim­bab­we Women were nev­er al­lowed to set­tle. The West In­dies bowlers ap­plied re­lent­less pres­sure from the out­set, re­duc­ing the hosts to a pre­car­i­ous 9 for 2 with the dis­missals of Mod­ester Mu­pachik­wa for four and Ke­lis Ndhlovu for two.

Skip­per Josephine Nko­mo waged a lone bat­tle for her team, play­ing a valiant and un­beat­en knock of 74. How­ev­er, she found lit­tle sup­port at the oth­er end as wick­ets fell at reg­u­lar in­ter­vals. Chipo Mugeri-Tiri­pano was the on­ly oth­er bat­ter to of­fer any re­al re­sis­tance with 25.

The West In­dies bowl­ing at­tack proved too dis­ci­plined and po­tent for the Zim­bab­wean line-up. Ash­mi­ni Mu­nis­ar was the chief de­stroy­er, pick­ing up 2 for 32 from her 10 overs.

She was well-sup­port­ed by Aaliyah Al­leyne (2 for 39), Glas­gow (2 for 37), Afy Fletch­er (1 for 32), and Zai­da James (1 for 15). The Zim­bab­wean in­nings even­tu­al­ly fold­ed for 180 in 47.3 overs, hand­ing the West In­dies a com­pre­hen­sive vic­to­ry and the se­ries tro­phy.

CMC

Sum­marised scores:

WEST IN­DIES WOMEN 271-5 in 50 overs (Hay­ley Matthews 118, She­maine Camp­belle 96, Jan­nilea Glas­gow 26 not out; Nomvelo Siban­da 2-42, Beloved Biza 2-46).

ZIM­BAB­WE WOMEN 180 in 47.3 overs (Josephine Nko­mo 74 not out, Chipo Mugeri-Tiri­pano 25; Ash­mi­ni Mu­nis­ar 2-32, Jan­nil­lea Glas­gow 2-37, Aaliyah Al­leyne 2-39)

CMC la/26