CANBERRA, Australia, CMC – Fast bowler Chinelle Henry has described West Indies’ last two games as “must-win” fixtures in the wake of yesterday’s surprise defeat to Pakistan, and says the struggling side needs to pull itself together in order to hit its best stride.
West Indies, yesterday went down by eight wickets to Pakistan at Manuka Oval to suffer their first defeat of the tournament, after beating Thailand by seven wickets in their opener last Saturday.
Sitting third in Group B, West Indies face powerhouses England on Sunday and South Africa on Tuesday, requiring victories in order to climb into the semi-final spots.
“I just think that up top [in our batting], just for the opening two games, [we have] struggled a bit,” Henry told reporters.
“But we have two more games to go, and we as individuals know that these two games to go [are] must-win games.
“So I’m pretty sure everybody is just going to go back to the drawing board now, and in the coming two days I’m pretty sure everybody is just going to turn up and do what they have to do.”
West Indies were lacklustre with both bat and ball against Pakistan. Opting to bat first, only captain Stafanie Taylor and Shemaine Campbelle, with a joint top score of 43, passed 20 as the innings drifted to 124 for seven off their 20 overs.
Defending a modest total, the Windies’ bowlers were indisciplined, the fielding was ragged and the intensity was lacking, allowing the Pakistanis to coast to their target with 10 balls to spare.
Henry, playing in her second T20 World Cup, conceded that both the batting and bowling effort had been short of the standard expected.
“First off, batting first, obviously we didn’t start well, [opener Hayley Matthews going] for a first ball duck, and then we had a partnership between Staf and Shemaine which got us to a pretty decent total to defend,” she said.
“But then again, going out on the field as a bowling unit, we just didn’t execute as we would want to tonight.
“[Regarding] the fielding performance tonight, everybody was disappointed because we know we can do much better as a fielding unit. So basically it was just again, we just didn’t turn up tonight, and that’s something we definitely have to go back to the drawing board to figure out.”
West Indies won the 2016 edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup staged in India but bowed out at the semi-final stage when the Caribbean played hosts to the tournament two years ago.
