In two warm-up matches against Australia and India, the West Indies Women failed to score 200 runs each time losing by 90 and 81 runs, respectively. And while Head Coach Courtney Walsh preferred to focus on the positives, the realities of the situation are that if they are to do well, they have to produce scores well above 200 runs consistently.
Those thoughts were communicated at a recent team meeting.
"We had our meeting and we said that to be competitive we have to be scoring over two hundred runs," Taylor said in a pre-match interview. "In the two games that we played, we didn't do so. So that's something that we've had a look at and, moving forward, that's something that we need to work at."
Taylor believes the players need to spend time at the crease building innings that will give the team opportunities to get big scores that will give them better chances against Australia, India and tonight’s opponents, New Zealand.
"When it comes down to the longer format, we just need to spend more time out there in the middle. That's an area that we've been falling down a lot in, rotating the strike and try to build more partnerships. We haven't been building a lot of partnerships so hence the reason why we keep falling down in that department," Taylor argued while acknowledging that there has been less dependence of batters like Deandra Dottin, Hayley Matthews and her, to get runs.
In recent times, players like Kycia Knight and Chedean Nation have been getting good scores but other batters still need to step up with greater frequency, Taylor said.
"The other batters are starting to contribute. What we need to do is be in that collective in each game, be consistent. That's something that I've talked about a lot, being consistent, not just one or two batters always performing and probably looking at how teams are playing, a lot more fifties, batters stepping up and taking that responsibility. As batters we have to do that more consistently," Taylor said.
The West Indies Women went into the tournament as underdogs but defeated New Zealand and defending champions England in their first two matches to put themselves in a great position to advance to the next round of the competition.
According to Walsh, who spoke with the media on Wednesday, the ladies are feeling good about themselves.
“The girls are very happy. They are in a very good place with those two wins,” Walsh revealed.
“When you beat New Zealand in New Zealand for the first time and then a win against England for the first time in a World Cup game and they are two teams that are ranked above us, obviously you must take some pride in that, so the ladies are very happy with that.”
However, he warned that there is no place for overconfidence so they must work to keep themselves grounded.
“They really worked hard to achieve those victories and it’s going to give us a lot of confidence. The one thing we want to try and do now is to ensure that we don’t get too complacent, just take each game as it comes but we will go into every game with a lot more self-belief and giving it everything that we have,” he said.
Walsh will be hoping his words find fertile ground among his players as they will be coming up against a talented Indian team still smarting from their 62-run defeat to New Zealand on Thursday.
In a magnificent player-of-the-match performance, Matthews put together a shot-filled 119 from 128 and claimed bowling figures of 2 for 41 to anchor the West Indies in a nail-biting 3-run win over the hosts.
Prior to the win, the team had not defeated New Zealand in the format since 2014 and it was only their second win in 7 meetings between the teams at the tournament. The innings, her third ODI century and first at the World Cup, also represented a career run high for Matthews and was the team’s fourth-highest total at the World Cup.
For a team that few would have listed among the favourites, it was a solid start to the tournament.
“It’s exactly what we were looking to come out here and do, get off to a really good start and hopefully we can carry this momentum into the rest of the tournament,” Matthews said, following the match.
Matthews seemed to be set to bat in the middle order for the World Cup, after several strong performances in that position heading into the tournament. The player was, however, promoted back to the spot she had previously occupied after an injury to Rashada Williams.
“I didn’t know how I felt about it at first, seeing I was pretty comfortable at 5 but I’m the type of player that whatever the team needs, I’m looking to try and do. It seemed to work out all right."
Asked to bat first, Australia posted 259-7 from their 50 overs.
Ellyse Perry top-scored with 62 off 85 deliveries and Annabel Sutherland supported with 54 not out. Stafanie Taylor led her team from the front with the ball, taking 3-51 followed while Anisa Mohammed finished with figures of 2-45 and Hayley Matthews 2-45.
In their reply, West Indies Women reached 169/9 in 50 overs.
Taylor led with the bat scoring 66 from 128 deliveries. However, the next best effort came from Matthews with 24.
Ellyse Perry was the pick of the Australian bowlers with 2-6 while Tahlia McGrath, Alana King and Annabel Sutherland took two wickets each.
West Indies Women's vice-captain Anisa Mohammed said despite losing, there were some positives to extract from the match.
"The bowlers bowled really well and we had Australia under some pressure up until the 45th over but with wickets in hand a long batting line-up, it was expected they would go after it (our bowling),” Mohammed said.
“It's good to see Staf (Stafanie) getting back into the runs and taking wickets. We just need a couple more batters to get going and come that first game with New Zealand I think we will be ready."
West Indies will play their final warm-up match against India on Tuesday at Rangiora Oval before taking on home team New Zealand in the opening match of the tournament on March 4 in Tauranga.
