Wellington, March 30
West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor on Wednesday appreciated the performances put by her team in the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup despite a 157-run thrashing from the hands of Australia in the first semifinal at Basin Reserve.
West Indies had arrived into the World Cup on the basis of ODI rankings as the qualification tournament was cancelled in Zimbabwe due to the rise in Omicron variant of Covid-19 virus and losing 2-1 to South Africa in a four-match ODI series.
But Taylor's side set the World Cup on fire with thrilling wins over New Zealand and England. Though they won just one match, against Bangladesh, after that and had their clash against South Africa abandoned due to rain, West Indies made the last four stage after the Proteas defeated India by three wickets in the last league match.
"We beat two of the top teams, and I reckon no one expected that. And to be in the semi-finals, no one expected that. I think the way we played throughout the tournament has been really good, had some downs and that happens - it's about learning. And I believe that we are still learning. And I'm very proud of the way we play. We still have more to go. So, yeah, you'll see us around," said Taylor in the post-match virtual press conference.
Talking about where West Indies lost the plot against Australia, Taylor put it down to dominating power-play by Australia pair of Rachael Haynes and Alyssa Healy coupled with them dropping catches. "I thought the way the Aussies went about the power play, and in the middle there they kind of deflated us. And we had chances, but not taking those chances as well. Didn't go the way we would like. And hence, how we went about in the backend, with how many wickets they had in hand - pretty much put that down and a set total like that."
Asked about the talk in the dressing room before the chase began, Taylor remarked, "I think for us it was, knowing that probably our top four were going have to bat all the overs, if you wanted a chance at chasing down that total. Obviously, chasing over 300 in a 50 over game is never easy, further more it being 45 overs. But every time we go to bat, we got to have belief that we can get the total. But we probably didn't have the start that we wanted to - and a bit slower in the middle as well, which stopped us from reaching that target."
Taylor signed off by heaping praise on Hayley Matthews, who ended the tournament for the West Indies as leading run-scorer with 260 runs at an average of 37.14 and a strike rate of 80.00 as well as the highest wicket-taker with eight scalps at an average of 26.80.
"To help someone like Hayley, I've known Hayley for quite some time, probably about 10 or 13. So I've really watched her grow and to see growth in her game has been really good. She will tell you that probably I'm one of the persons who is always behind her, whether she fail or whether she score runs I'm one of our biggest supporters, and it's really nice to have such addition to the squad."
"Before it was just D (Deandra Dottin) and I and it's not just Hayley but you have others as well. I see growth in other players, you have Shemaine Campbell and Chedean (Nation) who chipped in as well. So it was really nice to have those players. But for someone like Hayley's it's even nicer. And whenever I call on her she delivers."
