PAARL, South Africa (CMC) — Pacer Chinelle Henry said she hoped the performance of West Indies Women against England Women in their ICC Women’s Twenty20 World Cup opener can spur them to better things in the remaining matches.
Hopes of the Windies Women landing an upset were dashed when the English brushed them aside by seven wickets on Saturday at Boland Park.
Though the batting of the Caribbean side managed to cobble together a decent 135 for seven from their 20 overs, thanks to a top score of 42 from their Captain Hayley Matthews, the target proved insufficient to hold off England Women, who coasted over the line with 33 balls to spare.
“The result was not what we wanted,” Henry said. “But to come here and say that I’m not proud of what we did would be not true.
“Looking at where we were a couple of days ago, or even a month ago when we played England and lost 5-0 to them in the Caribbean, I would say we came out here, and we definitely did compete with them. So, the next three games it’s just for us to improve on this performance.”
She added: “I mean they’re actually playing the same cricket they did in the Caribbean, which is the fearless cricket. If you realise, everybody that came out there to bat, they weren’t afraid of anything.
“They really came at us. And that’s the England we’ve been playing for the past month — and we didn’t expect anything different. I think that’s what makes them so special. They came at us, but it was just going out there and just playing our game.”
The defeat for West Indies was the sixth straight to England and 14th on the trot overall, and they will now face 2020 T20 World Cup losing finalists, India, in their crucial second match on Wednesday.
“What I saw from our team, especially against a side such as England, I would like if we could go in our next game and do the same thing,” she said.
“I have no doubt that when we come together as a unit on any day, like what everybody says, that West Indies just knows how to turn up. So, I mean, if we go there and play our game against India as we did in this match, then we definitely could beat them.”
West Indies welcomed back former captain and leading batsman Stafanie Taylor for her first match in five months after recovering from injury.
Though she was clearly not at her fluent best, Henry expects her fellow Jamaican to improve in the remaining matches.
“You know, after being out for such a long time and then just being thrown back into a World Cup match, especially on our opening day, I think that’s tough,” Henry said.
“But I think she has been doing this for a very long time, so moving forward in the next games that we have, definitely expect to see improvement from her. On that part, there’s not really much to worry about there, it’s just about backing her as a team and we know that she will deliver.”