Windies out to salvage campaign in do-or-die clash
TAUNTON, England, CMC – West Indies Women face the monumental task of turning around their disastrous ICC Women’s World Cup campaign when they take on a strong New Zealand Women in their make-orbreak fourth game here today.
The Twenty20 World Cup champions are winless in three outings in the tournament and are yet to win a single match on tour after losing all five of their warm-up fixtures.
Another defeat at Somerset County Ground here will surely put them out of semi-final contention but captain Stafanie Taylor said her side were still confident of winning their remaining matches.
“We’re still in it. We have four more games to go and we have beaten those teams before,” the Jamaican stroke-maker said.
“We know it’s not going to be easy with teams having wins under their belt so their confidence levels are pretty high but I can assure you that going forward we’re going to give it our best.”
Tipped as one of the outsiders at the start of the tournament, the Windies have been far from their best and currently languish at the bottom of the eightteam standings.
They opened with an eight-wicket defeat to reigning champions Australia Women, followed up with a sevenwicket loss to India Women before going down by 10-wickets to South Africa Women last Sunday.
That performance proved their worst of the lot, bowled out for 48 – their second-lowest score ever in One-Day Internationals.
With the defeat serving as a wake-up call, Windies management are hoping it can trigger a response which would see the team end the tournament strongly.
Taylor said she had already seen an increase in intensity in training sessions while the mood in the camp remained upbeat.
“We’ve been a bit disappointing for the last three games in how we’ve been playing but the mood is very good,” she explained.
“I really like how the girls came out and practiced and we’re really trying to put the past games behind us and move on. We had our training session and we look ready so we hope we can come tomorrow and put in a good performance.”
She added: “I think it is all about self-belief. We really need to look deep within and try to get that confidence back. We’ve been hitting it well in the nets so I don’t think it’s anything skill-wise so I think it is all about individuals.”
As if things could get any worse, the Windies have lost the new-ball pair of fast bowlers Shakera Selman and Shamilia Connell for the rest of the tournament through injury.
They have been replaced by batsman Kycia Knight and seamer Subrina Munroe, and Taylor hopes both replacements can make a positive impact.
“It’s very sad as a captain and a team. Shakera and Connell have been our powerhouses at the top [of the attack] and to see how they have just gone out of the [tournament] when we’re still in the competition, is very hard,” she lamented.
“You can’t really replace those two but with Kycia as a top order batter coming in and Munroe who has done very well at regionals, we hope … they can do great things for us.” SQUADS: NEW ZEALAND – Suzie Bates (captain), Erin Bermingham, Sophie Devine, Maddie Green, Holly Huddleston, Leigh Kasperek, Amelia Kerr, Katey Martin, Thamsyn Newton, Katie Perkins, Anna Peterson, Rachel Priest, Hannah Rowe, Amy Satterthwaite, Lea Tahuhu
WEST INDIES – Stafanie Taylor (captain), Merissa Aguilleira, Reniece Boyce, Shanel Daley, Deandra Dottin, Afy Fletcher, Qiana Joseph, Kycia Knight, Kyshona Knight, Hayley Matthews, Anisa Mohammed, Subrina Monroe, Chedean Nation, Akeira Peters, Felicia Walters.