Deitz praises WI Women’s series sweep

West Indies Women’s head coach Shane Deitz has praised his team’s historic showing after they completed a 3-0 One Day International (ODI) Series sweep against Ireland.

 

The tour saw captain Hayley Matthews become the first West Indies Women’s player to score back-to-back ODI centuries, while former skipper Stafanie Taylor joined an elite group after becoming the first woman from the region and fifth globally to reach 10 000 international runs.

Coach Deitz said the team achieved its pre-tour objectives and congratulated the players for “playing some pretty good cricket”, throughout the series. 

“We talked about batters stepping up and making big hundreds and you know Hayley’s made two, Stefanie made two, you know, young Grimmond made 90 and we had some other contributions along the way, so the batters did a real good job, that’s where we struggled in ODI cricket recently.”

He also praised the team’s bowling unit.

“We talked about just being consistent and making them hit our best ball more often, and I think the bowlers did a pretty good job with that as well,” he stated.

 “We had some new opening bowlers, some different roles in the team, so yeah, the players really stood up and fought hard the whole time. Obviously, after a long tour in the World Cup and disappointment in losing the semi-final, we bounced back here and played really good cricket,” he added.

The coach also reflected on the personal achievement of Taylor, while backing her to continue to rack up big scores.

“Making 10 000 runs is a lot of runs and since I’ve been with the team for three years, she’s in the best form I’ve seen. She made a great 100 against Australia in St Kitts a few months ago and then two hundreds here. 

“She’s going from strength to strength, so I reckon she’s got at least another 5 000 runs in her, but what an amazing player, a legend of world cricket and West Indies cricket. We’re lucky we’ve got her in our team and she’s such a great person as well on and off the field, so congratulations to her because she deserves everything she gets,” he added.

Following an extended stint on tour the team will return to the Caribbean for the WCPL, before embarking on a tour of Zimbabwe, where the head coach hopes they can be similarly successful.

Reflecting on her historic batting achievement, Taylor said her recent uptick in form is the result of hard work behind the scenes.

“I do feel proud of myself. For the last year or so I’ve been working really hard to get back my body fit and you know, score some runs for the team. 

“I don’t check the stats, so I’m really proud to actually score that many runs,” she explained.

Taylor was equally happy to contribute to the team’s objectives.

“Well, coming into this series we spoke about getting these six points and how crucial they are for us to qualify for the World Cup.

“We have a few series later down the year, but yeah, you want automatic qualification. I’m really proud of us as a team,” she concluded.

(KH)