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Windies Women must take opportunity – Coley - Coach calls for improvement as regional women look to avoid whitewash

Published:Wednesday | September 30, 2020 | 12:13 AMLennox Aldred/Gleaner Writer
Stafanie Taylor of the West Indies plays a shot while England wicketkeeper Amy Jones looks on during the first Vitality T20 between England Women and West Indies Women at the Incora County Ground on September 21, 2020 in Derby, England.
Stafanie Taylor of the West Indies plays a shot while England wicketkeeper Amy Jones looks on during the first Vitality T20 between England Women and West Indies Women at the Incora County Ground on September 21, 2020 in Derby, England.
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With the series already done and dusted, the West Indies Women will enter today’s final T20 against their English counterparts, hoping to avoid a dreaded five-nil whitewash when the teams clash in Derby at midday.

The Stafanie Taylor-led Windies Women have been outplayed in all departments by England and, as such, have failed to secure a victory in four attempts. The regional girls have, however, shown slow but steady improvements as the series has gone on.

Today’s final game means there is a chance for some players to showcase what they have learnt over a couple of weeks in the UK, and interim head coach Andre Coley believes this is the perfect opportunity for the players to come to the party and leave everything out on the line.

“Opportunity is always a word that we use and we can’t keep squandering it. One more game offers that opportunity to actually take the learning from the previous games and be better,” said Coley.

Only Deandra Dottin has shown her international pedigree on tour thus far, scoring a series-leading 174 runs in four innings with a top score of 69. On the bowling side, Shakera Selman, Hayley Matthews and Taylor have snared five wickets each, and Coley is hoping that the bowlers will finally execute the plans that have been laid out.

“If we can continue to contain and rotate the bowlers in such a way that we can keep England guessing while picking up wickets along the way, then we can continue to stem the runs. We also need to make sure that towards the back end, we are clearer with our plans because we know what to do but it’s more about executing,” added Coley.

The Windies may opt to bring back veteran spinner Afy Fletcher along with Selman to share the new ball with Shamelia Connell.

However, captain Taylor says there could be more changes as the tour comes to an end.

“I’m not sure what the selection is going to be like, but it’s the last game and we probably have players here who haven’t played much. We still want to give players exposure but at the same time, you want to keep that core group as well. You don’t want it to be all fresh faces. I’m not sure what it’s going to look like, but we’ll see,” said Taylor.