Windies Women met some objectives despite heavy defeat, says skipper Taylor
WEST Indies Women Captain Stafanie Taylor says there were encouraging signs of development despite the 0-5 loss at the hands of hosts england on their Twenty20 (T20) cricket tour.
“We lost the series, we lost five-nil — not ideal. But [I am] encouraged in the sense that having five or six coaches here — the way we responded to the coaches,” she said after a three-wicket defeat in the series finale on Wednesday.
Taylor continued: “Players grew in the sense that players got to spend one-on-one time [with coaches], so we could improve in areas.”
England, rated second in the world in T20s, won the first two matches by identical 47-run margins before recording victories in the third and fourth contests by 20 and 44 runs, respectively.
The closest the visitors got to an upset was in the final contest which was limited to five overs per side due to rain. They batted first — the only occasion in the series — and were restricted to 41-3. England Women’s run chase was helter-skelter but they reached 42-7 with three balls to spare.
The results extend the West Indies Women losing skid to 13-consecutive in bilateral T20 series. Last year they went down 0-3 to world champions Australia followed by 0-5 defeat to India.
Before the opening match of the tour on September 21, women’s cricket had been at a standstill since March due to the novel coronavirus.
The previous game between England Women and West Indies had been at the group stage of the T20 World Cup in Australia. England won that encounter by 46 runs, and advanced to the semi-final, while the Caribbean team was eliminated from the group.
The bilateral series, contested in a biosecure environment at Derbyshire’s County Ground, to reduce risk of exposure to the virus, presented the opportunity for West Indies to hit back.
The regional side was buoyed by the three weeks spent acclimatising and training in Derby before the series began.
But given recent form, many had predicted that West Indies, ranked sixth in the format, would be facing a stacked deck against the formidable hosts, especially with the expected chilly English weather in late September.
Additionally, the appointment of Andre Coley as interim head coach was made just ahead of the trip to England.
“We knew we would be coming to England’s backyard and it wouldn’t be an easy tour. We had a few weeks of training; we trained really hard. It was just one of them tours that didn’t go our way. We had a look at some young players, trying to integrate the young players. So in some areas, yeah, the objectives were met,” Taylor told journalists during Wednesday’s post-match interview.
“I’m very proud. When we look at the year, if we didn’t come over we weren’t sure we would have any tour coming up, so when the chance came we just took it because we wanted to play some cricket. We knew what the challenge would be like, but nevertheless, we came to play some cricket,” the Windies skipper reiterated.