Deitz encourages Windies Women to believe in themselves

LAHORE, Pakistan (CMC):

WEST INDIES Women’s head coach Shane Deitz has called on his players to “be more consistent and to fight harder” ahead of their World Cup Qualifier against Pakistan, which began this morning.

The regional team had a rocky start to the competition, losing their opening match to Scotland and then just squeezing past Ireland in their second.

They must now win their remaining matches against Pakistan, Bangladesh and Thailand if they are to claim one of the two qualifying spots for the Women’s World Cup, which will bowl off in India in September.

Deitz said the West Indies were one of the most talented teams in the tournament and now was the time to assert themselves.

“We have to be more consistent, and we have to fight harder. When we start fighting harder, we get desperate to win the game and we looked a better team.

“We just have to believe in ourselves, believe in our skills. I think we are one of the most skilful teams here with some great players, so we have to believe and trust in our ability and take it to the opposition a bit more,” Deitz said.

“We have to be a bit more proactive, a bit more aggressive with bat and ball, and that’s what we have to be, not just sort of going through the motions and hope to win. We’ll go out there and really try hard to win the game from ball one and get on top really early in the game.

“We have to back ourselves and stamp our authority on this competition,” he maintained.