ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Captain Stafanie Taylor remains concerned about her side’s batting despite their convincing clean sweep of last week’s three-match One-Day International series against Sri Lanka Women.
West Indies picked up all six ICC Women’s Championship points on offer in the series at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad, to make a bright start to their 2021 World Cup qualifying campaign.
They chased down modest targets to win the first two matches but could only muster 182 for eight off 45 overs, on the only occasion they batted first.
“We are still not satisfied with the totals that we put on the board,” Taylor said.
“We have to post bigger totals, as this is one of the things that hurt us in this year’s ICC Women’s World Cup in England. We have to post consistently big totals, so that we can put pressure on the opposition and give our bowling attack more runs to defend.”
She added: “Our aim was to win all the matches in the series and we achieved that objective, so from that perspective we were satisfied.
“We still have work to do and there are areas we need to tighten, so that when we play some of the more experienced sides, we can seriously challenge them.”
West Indies achieved direct qualification for last summer’s World Cup in England but then under-performed, losing five of their seven outings to suffer early elimination. Notoriously in one match against South Africa, they were bowled out for a tournament-low 48.
With the new cycle of the ICC Women’s Championship now underway, Taylor said it had been important to make a winning start in order to inject added confidence into the squad, especially with tougher assignments ahead.
“Winning all three matches was important. They say winning is a habit and success breeds success. This will help our confidence going forward in the Championship,” she pointed out.
“Getting all six Championship points from this series was important and we did it. A few players also had solid performances that will also help them to believe in themselves more. We had enormous team unity.
“We are scheduled to face New Zealand early next year on the road and that will be a tough series. The White Ferns on home soil are very difficult to beat. Our last trip there was not very memorable, so we will have to prepare extremely well for that series and try to reverse that result.”
Regardless of the challenges, the 26-year-old Taylor said her side would not be shirking from what lay ahead of them.
“We are a group of highly motivated, young women and we want to prove ourselves on the World stage,” she stressed.
“Therefore, we can only improve by playing regularly at a high level, so we welcome the opportunity that the Championship provides for us.”
West Indies take on Sri Lanka Women in the opening Twenty20 International of the three-match series at Coolidge Cricket Ground here today.
