The West Indies Women escaped with yet another close win in the face of a mediocre effort against Bangladesh at the ICC Women’s World Cup on Friday, but captain Stafanie Taylor spared no punches when she criticized her team’s batting.
Defending a paltry 140 for nine against Mount Maunganui, West Indies pulled off a dramatic win in the final over, bowling the Asian side out for 136.
The batting performance mirrored the 131 against Australia in a seven-wicket defeat in Wellington and the 162 against India here at Seddon Park, a state of affairs Taylor said could not be allowed to continue.
“I always say the batters need to come to the party. We’re not consistent and we need to be consistent if we’re ever going to compete in this competition,” said a stony-faced Taylor.
“If you look around, [all the teams] are pretty tight in the table and it’s not a case where Hayley (Matthews), Deandra (Dottin), or myself have to always bat.
“We have a batting line-up that is quite long and we just have to come together and win games and be more consistent.”
She continued: “It is something that we just need to talk about as a batting group, where we’re at and where we need to be – there are no two ways about it.
“We had close games and probably looking back from the India game we did not perform well with the bat and even looking back on the Australia game and even looking here [at this game against Bangladesh].
“It’s something that is a bit of a concern for us and we just have to talk about it because we can’t really go through the tournament like this. We have to put our hands up and bat.”
Bangladesh looked in control when they reached 60 for two in the 22nd over before leg-spinner Afy Fletcher, in her first game of the tournament and only the second in nearly two years after giving birth to her first child, turned the contest on its head.
She bowled Fargana Hoque (23) and in her next over, removed Rumana Ahmed and Ritu Moni both without scoring with no runs added to leave Bangladesh tottering on 60 for five in the 24th over.
“I thought Afy was brilliant. It was her first game [of the tournament] after giving birth and I thought she was brilliant,” Stafanie Taylor said of the 35-year-old who finished with three for 29.
“She’s been working really hard in the nets and I’m really pleased that she came out on top.”
West Indies will take on Pakistan in their next game here Monday (9 pm, Sunday Eastern Caribbean time) as they chase their fourth win of the tournament, following positive opening results against New Zealand and England.
They currently lie third on six points behind unbeaten Australia on 10 and South Africa – also unbeaten – on eight points.
