Matthews Breaks Taylor’s Record as West Indies Stop on 299

Hayley Matthews scored 182 off 156 balls as West Indies beat Zimbabwe by 99 runs in the first women’s ODI in Harare. The 26-four, two-six innings is now the highest by a West Indies batter in women’s one-day internationals, passing Stafanie Taylor’s 171 from 2013.

West Indies made 299 for 6 after choosing to bat at Harare Sports Club on 24 September 2026, then bowled Zimbabwe out for 200 in 43.3 overs to lead the three-match series 1-0.

Matthews Makes 182 of West Indies’ 299

The West Indies captain opened and stayed until the first ball of the 50th over, when Tendai Makusha yorked her for 182. She faced 156 balls, batted 194 minutes, and struck at 116.66. Player of the match was a formality.

Realeanna Grimmond, her fellow opener, helped her through a 128-run stand that ate 23.2 overs. Matthews was the quicker of the two, 62 of those runs from 71 balls, before Grimmond was caught behind off Beloved Biza for 53 off 70, her third ODI fifty in her ninth match.

From there Matthews scored 120 of the 171 runs West Indies added. She reached fifty off 62 balls with eight fours, her hundred off 108 with 14 fours, and 150 off 140 with 20 fours and both of her sixes. The last 32 runs came off 16 balls, a strike rate of 200, until Makusha knocked her over with five deliveries left in the innings.

THE SCORING STEPS

1. 62 balls: Fifty, eight fours, still opening with Grimmond.
2. 108 balls: Hundred, 14 fours, West Indies two down and rebuilding.
3. 140 balls: 150, 20 fours and two sixes, the death overs hers alone.
4. 156 balls: Bowled by Makusha for 182 on the first ball of the last over.

She featured in every West Indies partnership until those last five balls. Chinelle Henry helped her add 71 in 53 balls for the fourth wicket, Matthews taking 49 of them from 27. With Jannillea Glasgow she added 36 more, 30 of them her own, turning down singles to keep the strike.

After Grimmond’s Fifty, Nobody Reached 20

The record night still needed a supporting cast, and it did not arrive. Grimmond’s 53 was the only other score past 20. Henry made 19. Wicketkeeper Shemaine Campbelle made 13. Taylor, the woman whose 171 had sat at the top of the West Indies list since the 2013 World Cup, was bowled by Francisca Chipare for 2 off 10.

WEST INDIES BATTING, HARARE

Extras were 22, 18 of them wides. The other seven batters, Grimmond included, made 95 between them. West Indies finished at 5.98 an over, which is a total built by one innings and a pile of extras, not by a middle order converting a platform.

This was the pair’s second century opening stand in four ODIs. In July they had put on 258 against Ireland in Bready, Matthews finishing 159 not out, Grimmond 91. The Harare version was slower and then, once Grimmond left, almost a solo.

Zimbabwe’s Bowlers Kept the Total Under 300

Chipare, the medium pacer, took 2 for 57 from 10 overs and bowled Taylor and Henry. Makusha finished with 1 for 57 from eight, plus the wicket that stopped a double hundred. Biza had Grimmond. Nyasha Gwanzura trapped Campbelle. Michelle Mavunga went for 64 from 10 without a wicket. Olinder Chare bowled 6.1 overs for 20 and was the one Zimbabwe seamer who looked like a brake.

They did keep West Indies from 300. The visitors have only once in women’s ODIs reached that mark, 368 for 8 against Sri Lanka in Mumbai on 3 February 2013, still their record total. 299 for 6 is now second on that list, one run short of a club that has a single member. Claxton was run out for 2 off Chipare and Modester Mupachikwa with two balls left, Glasgow 5 not out, Alleyne 1 not out, the innings stuck on 299.

The national record still swallowed the rest of the night. Eighteen runs short of 200 for Matthews, one run short of 300 for her team, and the conversation stayed on 182.

The 86 That Had No Partner

Zimbabwe were set 300. Sharne Mayers started as if the chase were a T20, going 6, 4, 4 off Alleyne, two of them thick edges, then holing out at deep square leg off Glasgow for 21 off 23. Kelis Ndhlovu fell for 15. At 51 for 2 in the 10th over the innings already needed a long hand, and Mupachikwa tried to play it.

Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano added 49 with her for the third wicket and made 26 off 37, the next-best score. When Mugeri-Tiripano was caught off Afy Fletcher at 100 for 3 in the 22nd over, Zimbabwe still had 7 wickets and 28 overs. They used them for 100 more runs.

HOW THE CHASE BROKE

• 34 for 1: Mayers caught Grimmond off Glasgow, the early burst over.
• 100 for 3: Mugeri-Tiripano gone for 26, the only stand of substance done.
• 152 for 5: Josephine Nkomo, the captain, run out off Taylor for 10.
• 181 for 9: Chipare lbw to Glasgow for a duck, the tail gone.
• 200 all out: Mupachikwa bowled by Alleyne for 86 off 106, last out in the 44th over.

Mupachikwa hit 7 fours and a six, struck at 81.13, and batted 173 minutes. She was there for every wicket after Mayers. Alleyne took 3 for 44 in 6.3 overs, including the last three of Mupachikwa, Mavunga and Chare. Glasgow, Ashmini Munisar (2 for 27 from eight) and Fletcher (2 for 31) took two each. Matthews, after 156 balls, did not bowl.

Where 182 Sits After Taylor’s 171

Taylor’s 171 off 137 against Sri Lanka in Mumbai in 2013, 18 fours and two sixes, had been the West Indies women’s ODI record for 13 years. Matthews went past it on the same day she posted West Indies’ second-highest team total. She now owns three of the five highest West Indies scores in the format: 182 here, 159 not out against Ireland in 2026, and 141 against Pakistan in Karachi in 2024. Deandra Dottin’s 150 not out against South Africa in 2022 sits between the Ireland knock and Karachi.

The innings is also the sixth-highest in women’s ODI history. Only two women have made 200 in the format.

HIGHEST WOMEN’S ODI SCORES

It was Matthews’ 13th ODI hundred, the most for West Indies, and her 16th international hundred across formats. She now has ODI hundreds against nine teams. The 182 was her second score of 150 or more in a calendar year, after the unbeaten 159 in Bready, the first time a woman has done that in ODIs.

The ICC called it the highest-ever score for West Indies in women’s ODIs the same afternoon.

A record-breaking knock as Hayley Matthews registers the highest-ever score for West Indies in Women's ODIs 👏

📸: @windiescricket pic.twitter.com/tcmskJjaiE

— ICC (@ICC) September 24, 2026

She is 28, born 19 March 1998 in Barbados, and has captained West Indies since June 2022, taking over from Taylor. In 109 ODIs she has 3,748 runs at 37.48, with 13 hundreds and 8 fifties, plus 142 wickets at 23.72. The bat did all the work in Harare.

Two Championship Points Against a Side on Zero

The match was Women’s ODI no. 1565 and the opener of a first bilateral series across formats between these sides. The three ODIs count toward the 2025-2029 ICC Women’s Championship. West Indies took 2 points, Zimbabwe 0.

West Indies arrived fifth, with 4 wins and 5 losses from 9 matches and 8 points. Zimbabwe sat 10th, 0 wins from 6, 0 points, net run rate -3.693, after Championship trips to New Zealand and Pakistan. West Indies had just swept Ireland 3-0, the series in which Matthews and Grimmond built that 258-run stand.

In January, talking through the new Championship cycle on the Cricket West Indies site, Matthews had already named this kind of fixture as the work her side had to finish.

We know that at our best, teams like Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Ireland are teams that we want to be winning more games than losing and picking up some crucial points in those series.

Hayley Matthews, West Indies captain, Cricket West Indies

Harare was that assignment. The 182 cashed the Championship points against Zimbabwe she had pointed at. It did not hide the old shape of a West Indies innings, one batter doing the heavy scoring while the rest of the card stays in single figures and low teens.

Zimbabwe Cricket managing director Givemore Makoni had used the buildup to welcome West Indies Women to Harare as a chance to grow the home side’s programme. Josephine Nkomo’s team still has no Championship win this cycle. Mupachikwa’s 86 was a proper ODI innings. The other 10 made 99, plus 15 wides.

Cricket West Indies named its Zimbabwe tour squad with Matthews as ODI captain only. Chinelle Henry leads the T20Is that follow at Takashinga Cricket Club on 3, 5 and 7 October. Dottin is not on this trip.

The second ODI is back at Harare Sports Club on 27 September, start 9.30 local time, with the third on 30 September. Kim Cotton of New Zealand and Percival Sizara of Zimbabwe stood in the first match, Iknow Chabi on television, Owen Chirombe the referee.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Are the Only Women to Score 200 in an ODI?

Amelia Kerr’s 232 not out for New Zealand against Ireland in Dublin in 2018 and Belinda Clark’s 229 not out for Australia against Denmark in Mumbai in 1997 are the only women’s ODI double hundreds. Matthews’ 182 sits sixth all-time and does not join that pair.

Does Hayley Matthews Play the T20Is on This Tour?

No. Henry captains the three T20Is at Takashinga, and Matthews is listed for the ODIs only. Her last T20I before this tour was against Australia on 30 June 2026.

When Did Matthews Take Over as West Indies Captain?

Cricket West Indies named her captain in June 2022, succeeding Taylor. Taylor still opened at No. 3 in Harare and bowled five overs for 22 without a wicket.

How Many ODI Wickets Does Matthews Have?

She has 142 ODI wickets at 23.72, with a best of 4 for 15, from 4,886 balls. She did not bowl in Harare after batting through 49.1 overs.

Sunday puts both sides back on the same square. Matthews already has the record that had belonged to Taylor since Mumbai. Zimbabwe still has to find a second batter who can stay with Mupachikwa long enough to make a Championship chase look like one.