Taylor surprised at achievement

NORTH SOUND, Antigua – West Indies Women captain, Stafanie Taylor, said Sunday’s hat-trick against Pakistan Women had come as a surprise, as her sole focus had been on restricting runs at the end of the innings.

The veteran off-spinner snatched the wickets of Aliya Riaz, Diana Baig and Anam Amin in the final over as Pakistan plunged from 102 for seven to be all out with two balls left in the innings.

Taylor finished with four for 17, just short of equalling her career-best of four for 12 against South Africa Women in St Lucia three years ago.

“Honestly, I wasn’t thinking wickets,” the 30-year-old Taylor said.

“Runs were more on the forefront [of my mind] and trying to restrict them to not getting say like 115, because I know that wicket would’ve been kind of hard to bat on.

“So as many [runs as we could restrict] them to, we would have a good chase.”

In reply, the hosts slumped to 17 for three at the end of the third over but Taylor completed a fine all-round Player-of-the-Match performance by hitting an unbeaten 43 off 41 balls to rescue her side.

She struck four fours, putting on 41 for the fourth wicket with Chedean Nation (20) and a further 48 in an unbroken fifth wicket partnership with wicketkeeper Kycia Knight who made an unbeaten 24.

Taylor said once the experienced trio of Hayley Matthews, Deandra Dottin and Kyshona Knight fell cheaply, she knew she was key to any West Indies victory.

“I wouldn’t say [the situation was] panic but yeah, [pressure]. I knew [Sunday] was the day I had to step up,” she pointed out.

“The first two games didn’t go as I would like and I just thought today ‘just get yourself in and once you’re in, you know that you can go big’, and I think that was my plan.”

West Indies eventually secured a comfortable six-wicket win with five balls remaining to complete a 3-0 whitewash – their first series success in their last five dating back just over two years.

“It feels good to be honest, We know we have been out of touch – we lost in England [last year] – but it’s a good feeling to actually come back and win and win 3-0,” Taylor said.

“We haven’t done that in a long time, and a series win to top it off, so this is a great confidence booster going into the 50-over [phase]. Hopefully we can have a 5-0 in that.” (CMC)