Walsh prioritises better strike rotation for Windies Women

ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – West Indies Women’s head coach Courtney Walsh identified a problem that has plagued the men’s team also affected his side during their recent One-day International series against South Africa.

Walsh said the failure of the batsmen to consistently rotate the strike and keep the scoreboard ticking over was disappointing and was a critical area of concern for his side.

It is an aspect of the game that has also undermined the men’s team in the recent past in this format and bogged them down.

The Windies Women failed to post a total of 200 at any time during the series, especially when the Proteas bowled with disciplined and dried up opportunities for free scoring and boundary hitting.

This led to several ill-advised strokes in an effort to loosen the shackles and a series of tame dismissals that hurt their chances of staying competitive in matches and the series.

“It’s a concern, the rotation of the strike, it’s something we’ve been talking about from the get-go of the camp, but it was highlighted a lot more against South Africa,” Walsh said during a virtual news conference to review the series on Thursday.

“In terms of just hitting the fielders and not being able to find gaps, not being able to play with soft hands and we have identified that.”

He said: “That has been an ongoing discussion before the series and that was one of the areas I was a little bit disappointed in during the series in that we did not try to show that.

“Leading up to the series we had been practising it, but match-day when we get out in the middle it wasn’t done. We just kept hitting the balls to the fielders. There was no drop and run, or tip and run. There was not enough of that. We did not do it consistently to convince me were thinking about it.”

Walsh said he saw the batsmen in the side trying to rotate the strike only for a short period during one match, but it was something they had to do consistently if the team is to have long-term success.

“It’s the sort of the thing you have to do in 50 overs-a-side games for a longer period if you are going to challenge teams and if you want to compete against the best teams,” he said.

“It’s a concern. It’s one of the things that has to be addressed, and it will be addressed at the next training camp when we have the time to work on it and try to get it much better.”

West Indies Women narrowly avoided being swept in the five ODI series, when they won the final match in a Super Over.

The Windies Women were using the series as part of their build-up to the 50 overs-aside ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup qualifying competition to be staged from November to December in Zimbabwe.

The tournament will be the final part of the qualification process for the 2022 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand.