West Indies Women interim head coach, Andre Coley is hoping for a string of improvements across all areas to help them avoid a whitewash against England women in the fifth and final T20I today from 13.00 hours.
The Head Coach stressed the importance of bringing positivity and intent towards a holistic performance in order to secure their first win of the series.
Looking at the batting, the Caribbean ladies have faced their full quota on every occasion but have not reached their targets. The highest score so far has been 134 while England have scored over 150 in every match.
According to Coley, he has seen improvement in their approach to the Powerplay and expects his side to bring the intent from that phase.
“Being positive is also very important if we are going to get anywhere close to a score of 150-160 then intent from the start is going to be very important,” Coley stated.
He noted that when compared to England in the same phase, they have been superior.
“I would want to continue to improve on our Powerplay batting, be consistent with that or even better than that with less wickets [lost] going into the second phase, the middle overs and then be able to manage that innings in such a way that we are going with a powerful position into the last part of the innings and finish strongly,” he reasoned.
He stressed the side’s inability so far to string together a collective batting performance.
“I think what we have seen one or two top order batters doing well but not two together or maybe three, maybe one and you had contributions along the way so the scores can be had in any ways, top order batting through or contribution from the middle order,” he said.
“If we can maintain that and take that throughout the innings and finish off strongly at the end then we stand a very good chance of getting close to that 145-160 region,” he added.
The think-tank of West Indies has come under scrutiny for persisting with Lee-Ann Kirby who has scored 15 runs from her four innings. Like Kirby, Shemaine Campbelle has just 30 runs in her four innings.
A similar concern hovered over Hayley Matthews who scored six runs in her two innings at the top of the order but has since scored 11 and 21 when pushed down the order.
Deandra Dottin is the only batter to show promise on tour, scoring two fifties so far. The 29-year-old opener has over 100 runs more than skipper, Stafanie Taylor who is the second highest run getter for West Indies with 63 runs.
Meanwhile in the bowling department, Coley was optimistic that they can be competitive if they continue to build on the exploits of a good Powerplay phase.
“If we can contain and rotate the bowlers in such a way that we can keep England guessing while picking up wickets along the way then we can continue to stem the runs and towards the back end we want to be clear on our plans.
“We know what we want to do but it is really about executing on the backend, the last few games we have conceded 30 plus runs in the last three overs and you noticed we lost by 30-40 runs in terms of margins of the game,” Coley stated.
Taylor is the only bowler with an economy rate under seven for bowlers who have taken a wicket. With 11 bowlers used so far and the series already lost, questions were asked about the possibility of a debut for left-arm spinner, Kaysia Schultz and fast-bowling all-rounder, Cherry-Ann Fraser to which Coley noted will be revealed at the toss.
Coley tried justifying the inability to ring in the changes to feature some of those on the bench by saying “I think that the key thing for us was always try to have our best XI on the field and try to be very competitive.”
A decent bowling effort, coupled with “an almost perfect fielding performance,” Coley related would give them the competitive edge needed to secure a win.
He contended that the fielding has also shown improvement despite a few catches going down.
“We have been very good in terms of our Powerplay bowling, continuing that while trying to pick up wickets. I think trying to pick up wickets has to be the intent right from the start if you want to restrict runs that’s the best way to do that and then finishing off on the back end. If we can actually nail our death bowling and have a close to perfect day in the field supporting the bowlers I feel strongly we can put ourselves in contention,” Coley stated.
