Improvements Needed Despite ODI Win, Says West Indies Women’s Cricket Coach Moseley

Photo above: all-rounder, Deandra Dotting , who has been a key player on tour.

DURBAN, South Africa, Mar 3, (CMC) – Assistant coach, Ezra Moseley, says the West Indies women’s cricket team need to improve, heading into the Twenty20 series against South Africa, despite winning the just-concluded One-Day International series.

The Caribbean side beat the Proteas Women, 2-1, in the three-match series in East London, but Moseley said, the performance was not up to their usual standards, and pointed to the fielding as one area which needed enhancing.

“It’s always good to win a series away from home, although in my opinion, I don’t think we played to the best of our ability,” the former West Indies seamer said.

“I was satisfied because it’s always nice to win, but we left Barbados saying, we were going to look to win all three, but there were things that happened along the way. We had the captain (Stafanie Taylor) getting injured, for the last game, and also the Knight sisters (Kyshona and Kycia) were out for most of the series, and only Kyshona played.

“We were happy in the end to win 2-1, but there are certain areas we need to brush up on. Our fielding during the tournament was not up to good standards, so that is something we have to work on going forward into the T20s and also into the World Cup.”

West Indies Women will turn their attention to the three-match T20 series, which bowls off at Kingsmead here Friday.

Moseley said, the series would be vastly importantly, especially since it would be the side’s last competitive tournament before the T20 World Cup bowled off, in India from March 15 to April 3.

“We expect the South Africans to give us a good run. They obviously are an improving side,” he pointed out.

“The last time we would have played them they would not have been as strong as they are now, but I think if we play to the best of our ability, we should win this T20 series but we’re not going to take them for granted.

“It certainly will be a very important series for us, because this is like a practice run for the World Cup, and it would tell us exactly where we are and what we have to work on going into the World Cup.”

One key player on tour so far has been the veteran, Deandra Dottin. The 24-year-old, who has played 90 ODIs and 79 T20Is, had knocks of 25, 61 and 28 and it was her five-wicket haul in the opening ODI, which carried Windies Women to victory.

Moseley said, team management were expecting more of the same from the Barbadian.

“Only this morning, we had a chat with her, telling her how happy we are with her, with the state that she is in now as a player. She looked pretty good,” he said.

“We all just want her to be a lot more consistent now and carry on doing the good things that she has done. Her bowling is always a plus to the team and it was good to see her getting a good five-wicket haul.”