West Indies and New Zealand get first wins at T20 World Cup

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — West Indies ended a 15-match losing run in Twenty20 internationals when captain Hayley Matthews launched a four over backward point to clinch a thriller against Ireland with one ball to spare at the Women’s World Cup on Friday.

Matthews went to 66 not out with the match-winning boundary and batted all the way through after opening. West Indies finished on 140-4 to chase down Ireland’s 137-9 and win by six wickets.

The West Indies earned their first points of the World Cup in their third game, as did New Zealand, which beat Bangladesh comfortably by 71 runs earlier Friday.

Another opener played the match-winning role for New Zealand when Suzie Bates hit 81 not out, although she had good support from Bernadine Bezuidenhout (44) and Maddy Green (44 not out).

New Zealand’s 189-3 was way too good for Bangladesh, which only managed 118-8 in reply.

The victories gave New Zealand and West Indies outside chances of still making the semifinals. New Zealand are fourth in Group 1 and need to beat Sri Lanka in their last game and hope other results go their way to make the top two in the group and the semis.

West Indies need to beat Pakistan and also get some help from others to qualify from Group 2.

Even with Matthews going well, West Indies still needed a testing 17 from the last two overs to beat Ireland.

Shabika Gajnabi helped by hitting fours off the second and third balls she faced and even though she was run out in the last over, West Indies scrambled enough singles to set up Matthews to apply the finishing touch.

Matthews’ anger at Gajnabi’s run out turned to joy two balls later as she carved a wide delivery from Laura Delany over the in-field for a long-awaited victory.