WI women's coach Deitz rues ODI series loss to India

WEST INDIES women’s head coach Shane Deitz believes his squad will have to work much harder in 2025 after their devastating 3-0 One-Day International series loss against India puts them out of contention for an automatic Women’s World Cup spot.

Deitz confirmed batting inconsistencies from his top order played an important role in the team’s demise over this series, but said this particular loss now ushers in new challenges for the coming year.

On the current ICC Women’s Championship 2022-25 cycle standings, West Indies women are ninth (14 pts).

With just one three-match ODI series to play against England in May before the cycle ends, and with it World Cup qualification, even if the Maroon sweep that series they would still finish outside the top six automatic qualifiers, and therefore must contest the World Cup qualifiers.

He knocked his top order batters for failing to set a proper foundation, despite skipper Hayley Matthews smashing a century in match two, but unable to get off the mark in the other two.

“You lose three wickets within the first six overs, and it’s tough to recover. Over the three ODIs, we lost something like nine (wickets) for 81 in the power plays. That’s an average of three wickets per power play for just 27 runs. It killed us. We haven’t been able to handle the new ball, and we’ve struggled to recover from there. That’s a top-order issue we need to address urgently,” he said in the post-match press conference.

He reiterated the importance of qualifying for the World Cup, which bowls off in August/September in India.

“We have our series against Bangladesh, our regional 50-over competition and the World Cup qualifiers, they’re just after that so we have to make sure that we qualify for the World Cup first and then we have series against England and South Africa.”

“We have a lot of cricket coming up, but we have to make sure we play well in that qualifier to make sure we’re here next year for that World Cup.”

West Indies lost all three ODIs convincingly, the first by 211 runs, the second by 115 runs and third by five wickets. This after losing the three-match T20I series 1-2.

On the team’s bowling attack throughout the ODI series, Deitz said they needed to bowl six balls in one spot, not four good balls and two pressure-releasing ones.

“That’s about technique, mental attitude, and fitness as well, a huge thing,” he added.

Deitz even scolded his batters saying that when they get to 30 or 40 runs they should be converting those knocks into centuries in the 50-over format.

In the final match, Chenille Henry (61) and Shemaine Campbelle (46) rescued a horror start which had the Windies women reeling at 3/9 in under five overs. However, Campbelle’s dismissal spurred a batting collapse, which saw Aaliyah Alleyne (21) the other batter to score double figures.

“It was a good partnership by Campbelle and Henry put together nearly 100 runs, but once Campbelle chipped one to long-on, and that’s what set the ball rolling. We’ve got to be better there, not open the door when we’re on top of the opposition to not give them opportunities to get back in the game.”

Despite ending 2024 on a losing note, Deitz remains focused on the upcoming series in 2025 and goal-bound on achieving World Cup qualification, via the qualifiers.