West Indies Women’s head coach Shane Deitz has urged his team to regroup and finish strongly in their World Cup qualifying campaign following a 65-run defeat to hosts Pakistan Women earlier today.
The loss leaves their hopes of progressing to this year’s 50-over World Cup in India hanging in the balance.
Speaking after the match, Deitz described the performance as “disappointing,” despite what he believed was one of the side’s best bowling and fielding efforts in recent times.
“Yeah, obviously a disappointing result and we were second best tonight. We started really well with the ball and restricted them to 190 (191) on a pretty good pitch that was deteriorating a little bit,” he said. “So we did the first part right.”
However, the West Indies Women were undone by a shaky start with the bat, losing captain Hayley Matthews to the very first ball of the chase before suffering two untimely run-outs that put them “behind the eight ball.” They were eventually bowled out for 126 in 39.2 overs, with Barbadian Aaliyah Alleyne top-scoring with 22 runs.
“Pakistan bowled really well on what was a turning pitch towards the end, and we just never got partnerships together to chase those runs down,” the Australian coach explained.
The defeat is another blow in what has been a frustrating campaign for the regional side. They had also lost their opening qualifier last Wednesday to Scotland Women by 11 runs. Nonetheless, Deitz stressed that the focus must now shift to ending the campaign on a high note, as finishing second would still see them qualify.
“We’ve got two big games to come. Train well in a couple of days and come out fighting hard… Cricket’s a funny game, but we’ve just got to focus on finishing well, playing some really good cricket, and giving our fans something to cheer about.”
He also reflected on the bigger picture, admitting that the team’s struggles are part of a wider pattern of underperformance in the 50-over format.
“We’re in this position at this tournament because we haven’t played good cricket over this cycle of One Day International (ODI) cricket for about three or four years,” he said. “That’s something we’ve got to really improve on, look at, and review after this — and be better going into the next cycle of the championship for the next World Cup.”
Despite the loss, Deitz took encouragement from some individual efforts, including a standout performance by 21-year-old Ashmini Munisar, who returned figures of 1-29 in her first competitive outing for the senior side since Bangladesh’s T20 leg of their Caribbean tour in January.
“It was 40 degrees and the girls ran around all afternoon and set the game up really well, which was disappointing [to lose]. Munisar hasn’t played much cricket… and she’s gone brilliantly today.”
Deitz concluded by calling for greater consistency and tactical awareness in future matches.
“We’re good in small periods, but in ODI cricket we’ve got to do good periods for longer — and that’s where we’ve struggled.”
After three matches, West Indies Women sit fourth in the six-team table on two points, having played a game more than second-placed Bangladesh Women, who have four points. Up next for them is a match against Bangladesh on April 17 before the campaign concludes with a fixture against Thailand Women on April 19. (JC)
The post Deitz urges strong finish after Windies Women fall to Pakistan appeared first on nationnews.com.