West Indies Women are heading into their second ICC 50-overs World Cup qualifier on Saturday confident of extending their winning streak as they aim to move into the next stage of the tournament with a full four points, vice-captain Anisa Mohammed said on Friday.
Speaking ahead of the match against Sri Lanka Women at the Harare Sports Club, she said while the squad did not feel any additional pressure, they understand the significance of Saturday’s game.
“It’s very important that we win tomorrow’s game and try to go into the next stage with four points. There’s a lot of rain around and you want to ensure that, in case rain comes in the next stage you have four points, you’re not just going in with two. So tomorrow’s game is very important and we’re going to play it as if it’s a final,” she said.
“I think we’ve been playing a lot of good cricket all around so it’s just a matter of coming out and doing the basics for a long period and hopefully coming out victorious and go in with four points in the next stage of the tournament.”
West Indies Women had to solid start to their qualifying campaign on Tuesday, with a six-wicket victory over Ireland Women at Old Hararians Sports Club.
That followed a clean sweep of the three-match ODI series against Pakistan Women earlier this month.
Off-spinner Mohammed, who was the best bowler in the first qualifier with figures of 3-40, commended the batters for their recent performances.
“As a bowler, we’re really happy to see that the batters are coming up and scoring runs for us. It takes away some of the pressure, you know, having to defend small totals. So it’s really good that they’re performing…and we’re really excited and hopefully tomorrow they can continue getting big scores for us,” she said.
Mohammed, who now has 296 wickets in all formats – the most by a West Indian woman in history – said she had her own personal goals as the tournament continues on the road to the World Cup in New Zealand.
“I’m the third-highest wicket-taker in the world. I would like to get past [former Australian female cricketer Cathryn] Fitzpatrick. She’s about nine wickets ahead of me so, hopefully, once I get past that, I go up to number two,” she said.
“I’m also four wickets away from getting 300 international wickets, so it would be a big plus for me to get that in this tournament, hopefully building some confidence going into New Zealand, once we qualify.”
CMC
