Deitz blames long lay-off for Windies Women’s poor outings

ST GEORGE’S, Grenada (CMC):

West Indies Women’s head coach, Shane Deitz, has expressed his disappointment with his team’s recent showing against Sri Lanka Women, which saw them lose both the One-Day International (ODI) and T20I series.

The home side lost the opening ODI series 2-1 before going down 2-0 in the three-match T20I series after the first match ended in a no-result.

During both series the Windies’ batting struggled, with Jannillea Glasgow and Stafanie Taylor the only two batters to score a half-century in the ODI series, while Chinelle Henry’s unbeaten 32 in the last T20I on Tuesday was the highest score in that format.

Speaking in a post-match interview, Deitz did not hide his dissatisfaction with his team’s below-par showing.

“Obviously I’m very disappointed, we didn’t play very good cricket, so that’s it. There aren’t a lot of things to be pleased about.

“It’s been eight months since we last played a game. We looked very rusty as a unit, our combinations weren’t working and we just looked like we hadn’t played for a while, which was obviously the case. But now we’ve got some cricket before the World Cup, which is perfect for us,” Deitz said.

The Windies Women will next play Australia in three T20Is and three ODIs from March 19 to April 2 in St Kitts and St Vincent, respectively.

However, Deitz did acknowledge the efforts of several players who, he said, had raised their profile during the two series.

“I think the takeaways would be a couple of fringe players stepping up, and Glasgow played two great innings in the ODIs. She’s starting to establish herself as an international cricketer, so that was great to see. Jahzara Claxton is also stepping up as an international cricketer, she showed a lot of versatility and has a big future.

“So we’re looking for those youngsters to get a lot better and develop their games,” Deitz said.