Mohammed wants a better fielding effort against England

The West Indies will go into their second match at the ICC Women’s World Cup against England full of confidence. However, the regional women are well aware that they will need to improve in the field when they take on the defending champions in Dunedin at 5 p.m. today, Jamaica time.

Despite their opening-match win against New Zealand, the West Indies women missed quite a few opportunities in the field, which could have made the outcome of the game a lot different.

Assistant coach Corey Collymore made it clear that the team’s bowling plans will not work without good fielding. He says the fielding needs to improve, especially since the English women are coming off a high-scoring, narrow loss to Australia.

For vice-captain Anisa Mohammed, the team's outcricket has to be spot on if they hope to make it two from two at the global tournament.

“I think fielding is one of the things we definitely need to work on, and I think the coaches and the players are aware of that. We are willing to put in the work because we know it is going to be a tough tournament. For us to win this tournament, we have to click in all areas of our game,” said Mohammed.

According to Mohammed, getting the better of one of the tournament favourites, New Zealand, in the opening fixture has given the team the added motivation to go on and create more upsets.

“I think victory in the first game kind of gave us some confidence going into the rest of the tournament. We have not had the best of ODI series in the past few months or so, so having won that game and against one of the top teams, I think that would have given us the confidence to just believe in ourselves.”

Following a player-of-the-match performance in the tournament opener, much more will be expected from all-rounder Hayley Matthews, who scored the first century of the competition.

Matthews is expected to remain at the top of the order to partner Deandra Dottin, with Kysia Knight, captain Stafanie Taylor and Shemaine Cambelle rounding out the top five.

Head coach Courtney Walsh may stick with his bowling unit, and off-spinner Mohammed is sending out a warning to teams that the Windies are here to compete seriously.

“I know a lot of teams are counting us as underdogs and they did the same thing in 2016, and we came out on top. I think once we continue having confidence in ourselves and believing in each other, we will continue to do well in this tournament.”