Windies women told to play Super Six with confidence

Mumbai, Feb 6 (IANS): Coach Sherwin Campbell appealed to the West Indies women’s cricket team to back their ability against higher-ranked teams as they stumbled into the Super Six, second round of the ICC Women’s World Cup.

Campbell has expressed concern about his players’ mental attitude to the tournament and believes it is linked to unpredictable batting, which nearly sent them crashing out at the group stage.

“They have to believe in themselves and back themselves to do well against these higher-ranked teams and I think that’s the key going forward from here,” said Campbell.

“We got to be honest with ourselves and back ourselves to be able to perform against these top teams”.

The West Indies women narrowly squeezed into the Super Six Tuesday on a superior net run rate to India after beating Sri Lanka and losing to the hosts and England.

“We have two days before we play … our main focus is the teams that are ranked above us,” the Windies women’s coach said.

“I think it’s a matter of reminding the players of their ability and that they are good enough to be here,” Campbell said.

“I think it’s more mental and we need to back ourselves against these higher ranked teams and believe in our ability that we can beat them as well,” he said.

The West Indies will now travel to Cuttack to renew their rivalry with South Africa in their opening game of the Super Six phase, Friday.

“Obviously the group stage is over so super six now is a different ball game,” he said.

“We got to go into super six with a positive frame of mind looking to do well and to get as far as we can going forward from here.