West Indies Women’s batting, along with their One-Day International form, will come under the spotlight when they clash with Pakistan Women in a three-match series bowling off in Pakistan on Thursday.
The Caribbean side has not beaten any top tier opposition in the shorter format since sweeping a similar three-match series against their hosts three years ago.
Their only other series win after that came against minnows Ireland at home last year.
In the interim, they suffered series defeats to Australia, India, New Zealand and South Africa, managing to win only two of the 14 games involved.
And with the Pakistan series part of the ICC Championship, captain Hayley Matthews said it was important her side cashed in.
“I think we had pretty good results that time [against Pakistan three years ago] and looking for nothing different here,” Matthews told a media conference on Wednesday.
“Obviously some points up for grabs in the ODI series which is super crucial for us. I think this series is really important for where we’re going to stand in the championship come the end of the games.
“We know Pakistan is definitely going to be a huge challenge as they always are when we come over here to play in their conditions, and I think if you look at Pakistan over the last year you’ve definitely been able to see a lot of improvements.
“But at the same time, our girls have been working really hard and we’re super up for the challenge to be able to go out there and hopefully win all three games and take it home,” the skipper maintained.
West Indies Women’s batting has been a major deficiency in the ODI format.
In their series Down Under last year, they were dismissed for 83 and 103 in the two completed matches, and were 107 for eight when the other game was rained out.
In their three-match series against England a year earlier in the Caribbean, the home side never got beyond 165 in another underwhelming effort with the bat.
Matthews, her side’s batting leader, said while performances had not been up to scratch of recent, work was being done to address the shortcoming.
“I think it’s been evident in the past year or two that we probably haven’t scored as many runs as we would’ve wanted, but at the same time, it’s something that we’ve been working on a whole lot throughout our regional competition and throughout training camps as well,” Matthews said.
“I think when you look at the teams we’ve faced in the championship as well, we’ve had a lot of the higher ranked teams to play against.
“So I’m hoping we can go out there and really put up some good performances and be able to gain some points off of the teams that are more closely ranked to us,” she noted.
The opening ODI gets underway at 9:30 am (12:30 am Eastern Caribbean time) at National Bank Stadium, with the series followed by five Twenty20 Internationals in a tour which runs until May 3.
(CMC)
