VIJAYAWADA, India (CMC) – West Indies Women still believe they can beat India Women in Wednesday’s final One-Day International and clinch the two points needed for automatic qualification for next year’s 50-overs ICC World Cup in England.
The Caribbean side entered the three-match series needing just two ICC Women’s Championship points to take one of the four automatic berths up for grabs but have suffered defeats in the opening two games, to put in danger their chances.
However, head coach Vasbert Drakes said the Caribbean side had been working hard on turning their poor form around, and were confident of a positive result in the final game.
“It’s up to us as coaches to make sure the players are up for the challenge,” the former West Indies all-rounder said.
“We have two days to regroup and to ensure we are having the right mindset so we can enter the game confident that we can execute in our respective disciplines.”
West Indies Women have been dogged by poor batting throughout the series, with several of their leading players failing to step up.
In the opening game, they went down by six wickets after posting a measly 132 batting first and then suffered a five-wicket loss in the second encounter after managing only 153, after again taking first knock.
Drakes said the Twenty20 World champions had found difficulty in coming to grips with India’s spinners.
“I’m a little disappointed we haven’t executed our game plan for the last two games but I think a lot of learning would have took place certainly by playing cricket in India,” he said.
“It’s always challenging and I think what they would have done really, really well against us is utilize their spinners against us which has always been a concern to the batters generally in the Caribbean. That’s an area we certainly need to improve on.”
Captain Stafanie Taylor, usually a prolific scorer, has made just 15 and 19 in the series while teenaged opener Hayley Matthews, Kycia Knight and Shaquana Quintyne have all struggled.
Though under pressure in the series especially after coming off a 3-2 loss against England Women in the Caribbean recently, Drakes said there was no reason for the Windies Women to panic.
“Stafanie Taylor in this series has not batted to her true potential and it certainly would have put a lot of pressure on the rest of players to make a bigger contribution as it relates to putting a total on the board so we can be in the game and that we have some sort of total to defend,” he pointed out.