4 March - Tauranga - West Indies Player Hayley Matthews post-match press conference

Reporter: Yes. Congratulations on the win - well played. Last year in July you are opening the batting against Pakistan back home you scored 100 Then there was a great run in the middle order. Then on the eve of the World Cup, again, you're opening the batting in the big stage. No pressure - just went out and smashed a 100 - taking wickets – just your thoughts on that.

Hayley: Yeah obviously I've been shuffled around the order a little bit over the past maybe eight or nine months, but at the same time, I think my job is to do as best as I possibly can for the team wherever they need me. And yeah, I think when I got the call yesterday that I had to go up the order. Yeah, it was just about me going out there and doing as best as I possibly could and yeah got some today.

Reporter: Hi Haley - congrats on the win and your performance. My question to you is just very simple - have you had a better all round day on a cricket pitch before considering the occasion and what it means to the team and all that?

Hayley: Yeah, I mean, probably not. I think when you talk about playing on the biggest stage, you talk about World Cups. First game, obviously really, really big for us against the home team and yeah, to be able to put in a really good -our own performance obviously means a lot to me and even more to the team.

Reporter: Yeah, just you're feeling okay with your leg or do you foresee any issues going forward? Is that like just cramps - how are you feeling right now?

Hayley: I think I just felt maybe a little pull when I went around a quick single with Stafanie Taylor, but I don't think it's anything really to be too worried about. Just probably take a couple days to rest and yeah, hopefully I'll be fully fit to get rough on the park for the next game against England.

Reporter: Hi. Congratulations. Could you talk about how you went about constructing your innings today, whether you broke it down into sets of 10 balls or 20 balls or whether you had a run rate target in mind at different parts of the innings?

Hayley: I think initially going out there to open I probably thought I’ll try to take a bit steady obviously – haven’t opened the batting in a couple of months. But yeah, I think when we got up there and saw how good the wicket was playing, I was able to capitalize without trying too much and yeah, I think that's pretty much how I just played my whole innings. Take it ball by ball. Set small targets with my partner was looking for partnerships and yeah, that happened to work really well. And then yeah, we were able to push pretty pretty hard at the end.

Reporter: What did you think when you saw Deandra Dottin take that ball for that last over?

Hayley: That’s actually quite funny – Shakera Selman I believe was meant to bowl and Deandra pretty much just came up to Staf and said to Staf - Give me the ball – we were like – why you haven't bowled international cricket in about a year now. Literally haven't bowled to anyone in the nets since we've been here. And yeah, she just came and said give me the ball. And I think – a player like Deandra – when she says to give her the ball. You just give her the ball - doesn't matter.

If she's bowled in a year or if she hasn't- I think that's what's really good about our team. We've got so much experience and we've got so many veterans that we can really call on. And I said it in my interview before. People that we know once we call on them, they're going to get the job done and she was the epitome of that today

Reporter: Congratulations first of all - just following up on Deandra and saying that she wanted the ball - What did she say after the over, did she say I told you so?

Hayley: No I think – Deandra is - I feel like she went into that over knowing she was going to get the job done - and for her it was like if we lose I'm going to take the blame - it’s as simple as that – players that will come to the captain and say I wanted this or I want to do that - and yeah, I think by the end of it, everyone was just pretty happy that we got the win and she was able to exactly what we knew she could –

Reporter: What does this mean for your team? Win your first game of the tournament against the hosts in such fine fashion as well?

Hayley: Yeah, it's massive. I keep saying we've obviously come into this tournament a bit as underdogs playing under the radar. And yeah, I think that's really good for us. It's helped to ease a bit of pressure and to make a statement like this first game is obviously massive and yeah, hopefully we can just carry this form moving forward into the rest of the tournaments and obviously we've got a pretty big first four games obviously able to knock over New Zealand today but if we can look to get some more wins early on in the competition is going to set us up in a really strong position.

Reporter: First of all, congratulations. To come here and win against the host is a great achievement but looking at the second innings and if there was anything, I suppose negative about the performance was there were a couple of chances drop during the innings - But is it almost comforting knowing that you've got a little bit more to give in the field knowing that you’ve probably saved another 20 to 40 rounds. And win potentially more games in this tournament - is it almost comforting in that respect?

Hayley: Yeah, 100% I think anyone will say we were pretty bad in the field today. But at the same time that you said it just shows that we've got more to give. We've got more room for improvement. And yeah, it's just about really reflecting on what we did really well and what we didn't do so well. We didn’t do fielding and yeah, try to improve that as much as we possibly can before the next game.

Reporter: Hello. My question is that you were playing the World Cup qualifier five months ago and today to be here. At this moment in New Zealand beating the host - talk to me about the journey you had since that match and how the team is holding together?

Hayley: Yeah it’s been pretty crazy actually. Obviously heading for qualifiers we were looking to use the opportunity to get some really good practicing and with everything that happened we were able to do so. At the same time that I do think we still had adequate prep. Obviously heading to South Africa before we got here was really, really good. And we feel we’re in a really good space. Everyone's playing the right cricket. And yeah, I think we're just picking the right time at the moment.

Reporter: And also, if I may - you were not supposed to start the day as an opener. How do you think that innings is going to help you in the entire tournament ahead?

Hayley: Yes, definitely given me a lot of confidence. I guess go there and bat my skills. I was pretty edgy knowing that I had to open today on such short notice but yeah, I'm happy that I got the opportunity and was able to make the most of it and yeah, I think just going forward into this tournament - No, I'll be looking to try and do the same thing as much as I possibly can.

Reporter: You were the player at the final in the 2016 T20 World Cup and that sort of, you know, it sort of made everyone feel that Hayley Matthews would be the next big thing. Do you firstly feel that somehow you like West Indies have fallen short of your expectations since that World Cup high in 2016. And how do you see today's performance from that particular lens? You know, where you were on April 3rd 2016 and where you are on March 4th 2022?

Hayley: I feel like cricket is one of those sports where it's a really long journey. And you learn on the job every single time and I feel like that's what I've been doing over the last couple of years. Maybe I guess some people might say that I haven't hit the expectations I've wanted to but I feel like at the same time over the last year or two I've really been able to improve and yeah, just show what I can – and yeah, hopefully I can continue doing that.

Thank you very much. That concludes tonight's press conference. Thank you