Pressure on batters to deliver in West Indies’ do-or-die match against South Africa

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (CMC):

West Indies Women are going into their must-win match against South Africa Women later today with offspinner Anisa Mohammed calling on batters who have not yet performed to step up to the plate and give the bowlers a proper total to defend.

West Indies will not only have to win that final group stage match at the Basin Reserve, but their opponents will have to go on to beat India in order for the Caribbean side to secure one of the three remaining semi-final spots of the ICC Women’s World Cup.

They have been inconsistent with the bat and failed to put significant totals on the board since they opened the tournament with 259 against New Zealand and followed up with 225 against England.

And Mohammed says the batting unit will have to do better in this evening’s high-stakes clash with South Africa.

“[Today's] game is going to be very crucial and very important for us and we have to play our best game and just sit and wait, and hopefully be able to go into the semi-finals,” she said at a pre-match press conference yesterday.

“I think once our batters can bat and put runs on the board, we know that we have a good enough bowling team that we’ll be able to go out and defend our total. So, I think it’s more a matter of our batting giving us some runs to work with and hopefully, we can take it up in the field as well.”

Mohammed admitted that the inconsistency with the bat was putting pressure on the bowlers.

Since their first match of the eight-team tournament, West Indies Women continue to record decreasing totals, failing to get past 165 in any of their last four matches.

In match three, they scored 162 against India, 131 against Australia in match four, 140 against Bangladesh in the fifth game, and 89 against Pakistan in the rain-affected sixth match.

“It’s really difficult, especially as a bowler, that you have to go out and defend small totals, but hopefully [today] we’ll have all the batters showing up to the party and putting runs on the board,” she said.

“We know that some players have performed and some haven’t, so runs are due from some of the other players and we’re hoping that tomorrow will be the day.”

Mohammed added that the team would need to stick to the plan to get past their opponent’s spin attack.

“What we struggled with in the past few games was playing against spin, and that’s something I’m sure we need to work on in the nets. But I think once we’re able to get through those spin overs and find a way to rotate the strike, then I’m sure we’ll be able to put runs on the board and give us a fair enough chance to win [today’s] game,” she said.

Despite the burden the West Indies Women will be carrying into their seventh match of the tournament, Mohammed said they remained positive.

“We can only control the things we can control and we found ourselves in this position. So it’s a matter of winning [today’s] game and hoping that something goes our way and we are able to qualify for the semi-finals,” she said.

With six points, West Indies are fourth in the standings led by the unbeaten Australia Women on 12 points.

South Africa are second on eight points; India are third on the same six points as West Indies but with a superior net run rate (NRR); England and New Zealand are fifth and sixth with four points each; while Bangladesh is in seventh position with two points and Pakistan lies at the bottom, also with two points but an inferior NRR.