MOHALI, India, CMC – West Indies Women will seek to banish the disappointment of their defeat to England Women last week when they take on hosts India Women in a virtual must-win game in the Women’s Twenty20 World Cup here today.
After starting the tournament with two straight wins to top Group B, they stumbled in a heart-wrenching last ball defeat last Thursday, to tumble into second spot alongside Pakistan Women on four points.
West Indies Women must now ensure they beat India Women and hope England also defeat the Pakistanis, in order to clinch a semi-final spot outright.
Even if they win but England lose, the Caribbean side will finish in a three-way tie with England and Pakistan Women on six points, with net run rate deciding the two semi-finalists.
This nerve-wracking scenario is one captain Stafanie Taylor is desperately hoping to avoid.
“I think we are very much confident. We know what we need to improve on. We worked really hard at training today and I think the girls are ready,” she said here Saturday.
“We just have to try and out-smart the Indians because we know they are going to come with spinners so we just have to be ready.”
West Indies Women have been let down by their batting in the tournament. In the last game against England in Dharamsala, they could only muster 108 for four off their 20 overs but they bowled and fielded magnificently to almost successfully defend the total.
Taylor, her side’s most dependable batsman, said a bigger effort was needed from the batsmen on Sunday.
“We need to see some positives in the batting. The bowlers have been doing so well and I think we need to help out the bowlers. We need to put some runs on the board so the bowlers can have something to bowl at,” she urged.
She added: “We’ve got quite a good idea of the wicket. We’ve heard from a few of the Indians what the pitch is like and they said it is a lot different to the previous pitches that we played on.”
Taylor admitted the narrow defeat to England Women had hurt. She said after reducing England from 59 without loss in the ninth over to come within a wicket and one delivery of victory, missng out had been difficult to absorb.
However, with a new effort required on Sunday, Taylor said it was a matter of returning to drawing boards.
“Looking at the nature of the game [against England], we were very much disappointed,” the Jamaican noted.
“We didn’t get the runs we would like but I think the bowlers did well to bring back the game into play and we just fell short at the last bit of it. We just have to go back to the drawing boards and see what we need to improve on.
“It was really tough to know that the game was so close because we thought we had the game and we lost it at the last minute.”
The game bowls off at 3:30 pm (6 am Eastern Caribbean time) at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium.
SQUADS:
INDIA WOMEN – Mithali Raj (captain), Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Thirush Kamini, Harmanpreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy, Smirti Mandhana, Niranjana Nagarajan, Shikha Pandey, Anuja Patil, Deepti Sharma, Vellaswamy Vanitha, Sushma Verma, Poonam Yadav.
WEST INDIES WOMEN – Stafanie Taylor (captain), Shakera Selman, Merissa Aguilleira, Shemaine Campbelle, Shamilia Connell, Britney Cooper, Deandra Dottin, Afy Fletcher, Stacy-Ann King, Kycia Knight, Kyshona Knight, Hayley Matthews, Anisa Mohammed, Shaquana Quintyne, Tremayne Smartt.
