West Indies Women’s captain Stafanie Taylor says she is worried about her side’s lack of consistency heading into the Twenty20 World Cup starting next week in India.
The Caribbean side defeated South Africa Women 2-1 in the One-Day International series but then lost the T20 series by an identical margin, after going down by four runs in the third game at Newlands on Wednesday.
“I would love if the team was consistent. I think we’re not consistent enough,” Taylor said following the encounter.
“We came off the ODI series with two wins and a loss and we had two losses in the T20s. We’re not consistent enough. I think going into India we need to try and build consistency. We have to work hard in the nets …”
“I think we have to pick up the pieces, go back to the drawing board and see what went wrong, what went right and just try to move on from this.”
On Wednesday, the Windies Women failed to chase down a mediocre target of 120 after they had restricted the hosts to 119 for three from their 20 overs.
Deandra Dottin and opener Hayley Matthews both got 24 while Taylor chipped in with 21 but they were only three of four players in double figures, as West Indies Women collapsed from a position of 87 for three in the 15th over.
“It was a reasonable score on a pitch like that. It was a good track … with a track like that anything can happen. We bowled really well to restrict them to 119,” Taylor explained.
She continued: “I felt we bowled pretty decent but our batting didn’t click just how we wanted it to. We didn’t have any of the top order batters batting through [and none] of us who got starts batted through.
“I think one of us should have pushed through and [gotten] the team over the line. It was unfortunate for me to get out like that.”
Taylor was third out, missing a sweep at leg-spinner Dane van Niekerk and going bowled around her legs.
Despite losing the T20 series, Taylor said she did believe her unit were better in ODIs.
“I remember when everyone said we were a good T20 team so I wouldn’t think we have better ODI players because won the ODI series,” she argued.
“We just didn’t play well. In one of the games (second T20I) we made [143] and played like the team I actually know but today we didn’t click.”
West Indies Women have been installed in Group B for the T20 World Cup and will play alongside the likes of England, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.
They take on Australia in their only official warm-up in Chennai next Monday.
(Taken from CMC)