BASSETERRE, St Kitts, CMC – Talismanic West Indies Women off-spinner Anisa Mohammed will be targeting 100 wickets when the opening One-Day International against South Africa bowls off here today.
The wily Trinidadian has taken a record 85 wickets from 54 matches and believes she can achieve the coveted landmark during the five-match series.
“I’m looking for 100. I pay close attention to the details in the game and I am 15 wickets away from 100. My aim is to look to get to 100 or as close as possible during the series against South Africa,” Mohammed said.
“That would require an average of three wickets per match, which won’t be easy, but I believe I can achieve it.
“That would mean I would have to be on top of my game in every match. It would be a great way to start the year in West Indies colours. The ultimate goal is to win the series against South Africa and get a good warm-up as we look to go to the World Cup in India – which is just around the corner.”
The 24-year-old has been the consummate match-day performer for West Indies, and has taken 28 wickets in her last ten ODIs.
Only last April in Barbados, she snatched a five-wicket haul against Sri Lanka in the opening ODI of the three-match series that the hosts went on to win by a 2-1 margin.
“Before every year I set myself goals and before every series I set myself targets. Last year one of my goals was to help the West Indies improve as a team and try to win the World T20 in Sri Lanka,” she explained.
“We did well as a team – winning against India and Sri Lanka at home and we also reached the semi-finals in the World T20. You could say we are moving forward.”
She continued: “This year one of the goals is obviously to reach 100 career wickets, but I also set goals with my team-mates. The first goal is to beat South Africa in these upcoming matches. We always play well at home and we always play well against the South Africans… we know we can beat them.
“As a team, we have played together for a while now and we know each other’s strengths and understand what each player is capable of.”
Mohammed will be one of the key players as the Windies take on South Africa in the upcoming series. The second match is also scheduled for Warner Park on Wednesday before the remaining three matches are contested at Windsor Park in Dominica starting next weekend.
Mohammed said she was confident the Caribbean side would do well against the Proteas.
“We have played against South Africa a lot as well and we know the weak areas to exploit. They have some good players, but we have detected a weakness against slow bowling so we will look to use a lot of spin. That means I will have a really big role to play in this series,” she pointed out.
“The other major goal is the World Cup in India. The West Indies have never won the Women’s World Cup and it would be amazing to go to India and bring back the trophy. We are preparing well and we will give all we have. But first up is South Africa, we will look to win here and take it from there.”
