They face the overwhelming World Cup favourites Australia in the semi-final on Wednesday
Firdose Moonda28-Mar-2022Of all the things we were not expecting at this Women’s World Cup – England to lose their first three games and qualify for the semi-finals, South Africa to win four matches under pressure in the final over, New Zealand to crash out at home – West Indies beating Australia must now be on top of the list. And who can blame us?In 14 ODI meetings between the two teams, West Indies have only won one and that was nine years ago. While Australia marched into the final four unbeaten and mostly unchallenged, West Indies can consider themselves fortunate to be here after they were left to rely on other results to push them through. And of the inconsistent batting performances West Indies have put on at this World Cup, their blow-out against Australia – when they were dismissed for 131 and beaten inside 33 overs – was the worst.But those are just numbers and if you look at the West Indies campaign it hasn’t really about that. It’s about heart. “The girls are still in good spirits. We always have that never say die attitude,” Deandra Dottin said after their washout against South Africa, which took their fate out of their hands. “We had a good start to the tournament and it’s just about taking the positives from there.”Fletcher tests positive for Covid-19
Legspinner Afy Fletcher has been ruled out of West Indies’ semi-final against Australia on Wednesday after testing positive for Covid-19. Twenty-two-year-old allrounder Mandy Mangru has been approved as her replacement, the ICC announced on Tuesday.
Mangru, who bowls offspin, made her ODI debut against South Africa earlier this year. She also featured for West Indies A against Pakistan A, a series that was played concurrently with the national sides in July last year.
A Covid replacement for the World Cup is temporary in nature and allows the original player to return to the squad upon recovery.
Fletcher has featured in three of West Indies’ matches in the World Cup so far, returning a match-winning 3 for 29 against Bangladesh. It was her first match of the tournament after a maternity break.
West Indies beat hosts New Zealand and defending champions England in their first two matches, in the process also notching up their first wins in New Zealand and taking the early lead. But they could not sustain their performances and went on to collapse against India, Australia and Bangladesh. “We’ve played good cricket but just at certain stages when it comes to the batting, we didn’t put good runs on the board,” Dottin said after the South Africa match.And that’s putting it lightly.West Indies only have one player, Hayley Matthews, who has scored more than 200 runs in the tournament (the other three semi-finalists all have at least two) and four other contributions of fifty-plus in an innings. By contrast, Australia have two centuries and eight fifties among their line-up; England have one century and seven fifties and South Africa have nine fifties. Their middle-order has been particularly problematic with Shemaine Campbelle holding things together but apart from Chedean Nation’s 49* against England and Stafanie Taylor’s fifty against Australia there’s been little else.Based on those performances, it’s not surprising that the odds were stacked against West Indies progressing to the final four, even before the weather intervened in their games against Pakistan, which they lost, and South Africa, which didn’t see any play. West Indies knew they still had a chance to get through but didn’t really seem to think they would. Taylor said she “went on vacation for three days,” after the South Africa game.But the team gathered together to watch South Africa play India and could not contain themselves when India lost in the final over, opening the door for them to progress. “Us waiting on those results was pretty nerve wracking,” Matthews said.”We knew we were in a tight spot and results had to go our way. The result was pretty nerve wracking but then it was just pure ecstasy at the end.”
To the semi-finals WI go!!!!! #CWC22 #TeamWestIndies pic.twitter.com/OHRr7vPpcT
— Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) March 27, 2022