Underdogs West Indies under less pressure than England – Deitz

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CMC):

WEST INDIES Women’s head coach, Shane Deitz, believes that all the pressure will be on favourites England when they clash today in their crucial Group B match of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.

West Indies currently sit third in Group B on four points behind leaders England and South Africa on six points, knowing that anything other than a victory will see them eliminated from the tournament.

With only the two top teams from each group advancing to the semi-final, West Indies have a slightly worse net run rate than England and a superior one to South Africa, should all three teams end on six points.

Speaking in a pre-match press conference on Monday, Deitz said England were favoured to top the group and would be the ones feeling all the pressure.

“We’re really excited for tomorrow and we’re going to play the same way we did over the last two games. Obviously, England is a bit different task to Scotland and Bangladesh. They’re one of the best teams in the world, but we’re going to have the same attitude,” Deitz said.

“… I think all the pressure is probably on England. They’re the favourites to go through, probably the favourites from our pool from the very start. So there’s no pressure on us at all, which is great.

“Obviously, we want to get in front early, put the pressure on them and play with our flair and have some fun out there. We back ourselves and our skills to be able to get over the line,” he added.

Deitz said, while the Windies’ opening-round loss to South Africa was regrettable, he was happy with the way the team had responded with two dominant wins over Scotland and Bangladesh.

He said the commanding manner in which they won those two matches had boosted their net run rate and put them in a position that a win over England would see them advance to the knockout round.

“It’s been a great experience for us and, obviously, it would have been great to have won the first game, but it has put us in a position where every game has been a grand final since then, and the girls, to their credit, have really attacked the opposition every time that they’ve played since,” Deitz said.

“It’s put us in a really good position as we go into our last game … [and] we’re now in a position where our net run rate is pretty good.

“A win should get us over the line. I know they’re a lot of calculations going on but, if we go out there and win the game, we should be fine, and that’s what we’re going to try and do.”