MUMBAI, India, CMC- Coach Sherwin Campbell is appealing to West Indies Women to back their ability against higher ranked teams as they stumbled into the Super Six, second round of the ICC Women’s World Cup yesterday.
Campbell has expressed concern about his players mental attitude to the tournament and believes it is linked to unpredictable batting which nearly sent them crashing out at the group stage.
“They have to believe in themselves and back themselves to do well against these higher ranked teams and I think that’s the key going forward from here,” said Campbell. “We got to be honest with ourselves and back ourselves to be able to perform against these top teams”.
West Indies Women narrowly squeezed into the Super Six on a superior net run rate to India after beating Sri Lanka and losing to the host and England.
“We have two days before we play .. our main focus is the teams that are ranked above us,” the Windies women coach said. “I think it’s a matter of reminding the players of their ability and that they are good enough to be here”. Seamers Anya Shrubsole and Arran Brindle shared seven wickets to engineer a West Indies batting collapse of 101 off 36.4 overs.
Kyshona Knight top scored with 33 and all-rounder Shanel Daley was unbeaten on 30 as West Indies crashed to 31 for six, before losing the last four wickets for 12 runs.
“I don’t think the pitch is bad I don’t think they bowled that well. Most of the dismissals were from balls that the other teams would dispatch,” said Campbell.
“I think it’s more mental and we need to back ourselves against these higher ranked teams and believe in our ability that we can beat them as well”.
West Indies will now travel to Cuttack to renew their rivalry with South Africa in their opening game of the Super Six phase on Friday.
“Obviously the group stage is over so super six now is a different ball game,” he said. “We got to go into super six with a positive frame of mind looking to do well and to get as far as we can going forward from here”.
