ICC Women World Cup 2022: The spinners choked us and we couldn’t rotate strike – Stefanie Taylor

West Indies women captain Stefanie Taylor believes the team could not get a par score in the 20th match of the ongoing ICC Women World Cup 2022 against Pakistan Women at the Seddon Park, Hamilton on Monday after they lost by eight wickets.

The match was reduced to 20 overs per team due to rain and the Windies could only manage 89-7 after Bismah Maroof won the toss and decided to bowl first.

West Indies could not get any kind of impetus in their batting innings as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. In fact, only three batters could get to a double-digit-mark in their batting innings as they failed to get going against the spinners.

Nida Dar was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers as she scalped four wickets and conceded only 10 runs in her quota of four overs.

Taylor revealed that their plan was to get to 125 runs initially but it wasn’t an easy pitch and thus they thought 110-115 will be a par score. However, West Indies were definitely 20 runs short of a fighting score. Taylor feels they could not rotate the strike at regular intervals, which increased the pressure on them.

Furthermore, two West Indies batters were dismissed without troubling the scorers as their middle-order failed to deliver the goods.

Stefanie Taylor said in the post-match presentation, “We were looking at a total of 125. But when I got in, I realized that 110-115 would have been a good target, but we couldn’t get to that. I guess when you look at the way we played against Bangladesh, the spinners choked us and we couldn’t rotate strike. The same thing happened today. We just couldn’t turn over the strike. I thought Pakistan bowled well. Nida Dar was fantastic. Anam bowled four overs for six. We just have to go out there and I hope that’s the game we play our best cricket in. It’s a do or die situation.”

West Indies have now won three out of the six matches they have played in the ODI showpiece. Stefanie Taylor-led team will look to come up with a better collective performance in their next match.

West Indies will next face South Africa women at the Basin Reserve, Wellington on Thursday.