It happened as everyone thought it would, and West Indies did not do the unexpected. They were completely outplayed by Australia, a team they are "not supposed to beat," as Hayley Matthews put it, but not for lack of talent or will.
Instead, it's the things no one wanted to say before the match that came into sharp focus. Things like that West Indies came in as rank underdogs because of the socio-economics that, in an ideal world, sport should be separate from. Things like access and money and privilege. On those scales, Australia and West Indies are as far apart as their letters in the alphabet.
"Every single person in the dressing room, they train really hard and they want to learn and get better. A lot of the time we tend to be competing against teams like Australia who, realistically based on systems and opportunities, we're not supposed to beat," Matthews said in a candid post-match press conference that outlined some of the major issues of the global game.
"We still come here and we show up and we put on some magical performances sometimes. But if we want to stop seeing a dependence on players like myself, it starts from the ground up; from us having programmes in place for young girls to learn to play cricket and develop from a young age and not just be the anomaly like myself and Deandra (Dottin) who decided to play with boys when we were 10. It's a problem that stems from outside of us and outside of the team and that's why as a player I can't necessarily ever be frustrated with the girls in the group."
That the economies of the developed country of Australia and the developing islands in the Caribbean are vastly different should come as no surprise. And it stands to reason that the sporting economies would have a large gap too. Add to that what Matthews called the difference in "shares," (read: ICC disbursements, though Australia only get US$9.5 million a year more than West Indies, but the latter also makes less money through television rights and other commercial opportunities), and there is an obvious discrepancy between the funding involved in the development of Australian and Caribbean cricket. Now, Matthews argues, the results on the field are making that too stark to ignore.
"You need a lot of money to do these things and a lot of people know within the West Indies we don't always have the funds required," Matthews said. "A team like Australia is always going to be better off at being able to put programmes in place and have pathways for young girls. If you're struggling for money to do these things, it's going to show up at levels like this. And I feel like it's a bit unfair sometimes but at the same time that's why it's so important and that's why you see so much pride and passion within our group because our girls have to fight a lot."
This was neither Matthews complaining about her lot, nor her making excuses for what was a miserable display. She didn't even lean on the easiest explanation - that West Indies also had to contend with the "scary" reality of the marquee player, Deandra Dottin, having a medical issue that affected her participation in the game. She was simply spelling out the reality West Indies have to deal with as a team where only a few players get the opportunity to participate in the game's global economy. Unless those players have an outstanding day out, the rest of the squad will struggle to beat a team like Australia. "A lot of our girls come to a stage to play for West Indies and they have a lot of learning to do on the job," she said. "When our players come from our regional competition, they're not nearly ready for international cricket ever. And that's why players like myself and Stafanie Taylor and Deandra [Dottin] are integral in helping them grow."
Happily, Matthews confirmed that she wants to "still play for West Indies" and expects the other senior squad members to do so too. "I haven't necessarily heard any of them talking about retirement yet thankfully," Matthews said. "There's still a lot of passion from them to play. What's most important for them is just a healthy team environment."
That was an interesting choice of words because when Dottin retired previously, she cited a "non-conducive" team environment as among her reasons for stepping away. Then, Dottin's plan was to maximise income by playing in leagues, yet another indication of the financial strain West Indies' cricket was under. Dottin is now back on a central contract and determined to contribute for West Indies but Matthews sounds like she hopes it won't be too little, too late for someone like Dottin to make a contribution alongside younger players.
"I keep going back to the money thing. It can be very hard sometimes. It makes it really hard for us to compete when we don't have pathway programmes in place. Teams like Australia have the greatest pathway system where they're pushing out Phoebe Litchfield's from 15 years old every single year," Matthews said. "Hopefully in the future we can get more things done and we can have more young girls being produced. My hope is that we don't have a gap now where we see it widening even more. The reason that we were so successful back in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016 is because women's cricket was based off of pure talent at that time. And when it's based off of pure talent, we're always in the run for it. But the minute that investment comes into the picture, we've seen the gap widen a lot because of that."
Speaking to Cricinfo exclusively after the game, allrounder Aaliyah Alleyne, who is from Chapman Lane in Barbados - an area described as a crime hotspot in local media - agreed with Matthews' assessment of the differences between themselves and Australia. "More needs to be done," Alleyne said.
But what can be done and who is going to do those things? It would be unfair to expect players to know. "I don't know what the answer is or what direction we go in. It's probably not even my job so I'm not going to worry my head about that too much," Matthews said. "I will sit here and be honest about how it feels."
Matthews, who has a front-facing leadership role, can use her voice in this way. Alleyne, who is a senior member of the squad and their best bowler after Matthews at this tournament, cannot necessarily do the same. Instead, she concentrates on leading through example for people from her home town. "It's always good to see someone like me from the neighbourhood I come from play at the highest level and it's for the younger kids watching me to see that they can do it too," she said. "At the end of the day some good things come in from that neighbourhood. It teaches you toughness, it teaches you disappointment, and also how to bounce back from disappointment."
West Indies will need those as they assess the cricketing aspects of this campaign. Asked if they felt they fought as hard as they could, Alleyne had to reply in the negative. "That was very disappointing. We can do way better than that with the talent we have in our set-up. It's just for us to go back and see where we went wrong and to grow as a team. It can only make us tougher as a team. We'll come together and tough it out."
Without significant financial support, that's all West Indies can do.