Women's T20 World Cup 2023: Pooja Vastrakar lands early blow as West Indies lose skipper Hayley Matthews

India's all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar drew first blood as she sent West Indies opener Hayley Matthews packing for just two runs in the ongoing clash of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2023. The two sides are currently crossing swords at Newlands in Cape Town in their respective second fixture of the group stage.

Windies skipper Hayley has won the toss and elected to bat first in the clash. Her counterpart Harmanpreet Kaur decided to hand the ball to Pooja Vastrakar in the second over to provide the side a breakthrough and she did so. 

On the first ball of the second over, Pooja bowled a short of a length delivery with some width which saw Hayley going after it with a back-foot punch. However, what beat her was the extra bounce and the ball kissed the bat and was comfortably pouched by wicket-keeper Richa Ghosh.

Bowlers to dismiss Hayley Matthews most often in T20Is

Sarah Glenn 4 times
Pooja Vastrakar 4 times

The Indian team often get a lot of criticism for their tactics but that was excellent use of a favourable match up#T20WorldCup #INDvWI

— Mohit Shah (@mohit_shah17) February 15, 2023

Interestingly, Hayley has had her own troubles facing certain kind of bowlers. Records go on to show that the flamboyant Windies batter has been dismissed by Pooja and English leggie Sarah Glenn on four occasions each. 

India make changes in playing XI against West Indies

Following the big win against arch-rivals Pakistan in their campaign opener, India decided to make a couple of changes for the Caribbean clash. The management has added the likes of vice-captain Smriti Mandhana and spinner Devika Vaidya as they replaced opener Yastika Bhatia and Harleen Doel. 

Speaking about the match, the Women in Blue have already got four wickets in under 15 overs and will be on the lookout to restrict the side to a paltry total. India's star all-rounder Deepti Sharma has already claimed three wickets to her name.