Barbados, June 24 (IANS) Captain Hayley Matthew showed her class with an excellent individual performance in the decider as the West Indies broke a 12-year drought with a series-clinching six-wicket victory over South Africa in the third T20I at Cave Hill.

Matthews (65 off 50) scored a superb half-century to pace the West Indies’ run chase, with Shemaine Campbelle (42 off 38) proving to be the perfect partner, as the Caribbean side chased down South Africa’s total of 147/6 with nine deliveries remaining.

It helped the West Indies register a 2-1 series triumph over the Proteas, which was the first time they had defeated South Africa in a bilateral T20I series since the start of 2013, ICC reports.

After winning the toss and choosing to bat, South Africa were led by a maiden T20 half century by Miane Smith, which helped them to post a respectable 147 for six in their 20 overs.

But Matthews was in fine touch in reply as she hit nine fours and one massive six to put the West Indies within touch of victory.

Matthews fell to Sune Luus for 65 in the 16th over to give South Africa some hope, only for Chinelle Henry (20 not out) to show her experience and guide the hosts home.

While disappointed to lose the series, South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt said there were plenty of positives for her side to take from the tour of the West Indies.

“Disappointed about today’s result, of course, particularly as I thought we had enough runs. But we didn’t get our bowling lines right – they scored too many runs square of the wicket and we got a few small things wrong.

“But Hayley played so well, it’s difficult to get her out. Overall on the tour I thought we unearthed some good young talent who put their hands up and made a good contribution to the team,” Wolvaardt said.

–IANS

bc/