Taylor wants better batting to retain WT20 crown

In this file photo,West Indies’s Stafanie Taylor plays a shot during the World T20 cricket tournament women’s final match between Australia and West Indies at The Eden Gardens Cricket Stadium in Kolkata on April 3, 2016.
In this file photo,West Indies’s Stafanie Taylor plays a shot during the World T20 cricket tournament women’s final match between Australia and West Indies at The Eden Gardens Cricket Stadium in Kolkata on April 3, 2016.

RENALDO MATADEEN

DESPITE a comprehensive win over Bangladesh in their opening clash, West Indies Women’s skipper Stafanie Taylor wants her batters to step it up if they are to retain the World Twenty20 (T20) crown.

The Windies defended 106 on Friday night in Guyana by bowling out the opposition for just 46, but Taylor believes there is a lot of work still to be done.

In terms of what went wrong in the middle, the Jamaican said, “I think our shot selection wasn’t good. (...) I know what we can do. We’re really strong and can hit boundaries any time. But it’s just that in the middle there and up top we need to rotate the strike a bit (more), and for me, it’s more about working it around and finding the gaps.”

The Windies had only three batsman getting into double figures — Kycia Knight (32), Taylor (29) and Natasha McLean (11) — and Taylor chided her squad’s overall disposition in the wicket. However, she indicated composure was the trump card as she always felt a score of 110 would be defendable.

“For me, going out there, I’m trying not to think about myself, but on getting a competitive total on the board.

But at some point I was talking to my partner, thinking maybe we should try to get around 110 for 115.

Try to milk it, not think about boundaries and then coming down to the end, hopefully we could go big because we can do that,” she referenced on their innings. Taylor also admitted the “excellent” Bangladeshi pacer Jahanara Alam (three for 23) caused them early problems by removing both openers to leave the side tottering on 14 for two in the third over.

While confessing the batting wasn’t “the best stuff,” Taylor did back her bowlers to bring home any match, following their skittling out of the visitors for the lowest total in the competition. The fact that no batsman made double figures was an added bonus for the captain as well. Deandra Dottin came in for the skipper’s ultimate praise after a record-breaking five for five and Taylor made it clear her bowlers were second to none.

“There is no doubt in my bowling attack. I’m pretty confident in that area where my bowlers could come out and defend any total,” she concluded.

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