West Indies showing "fighting spirit" and silencing critics

Courtney Walsh's side, who have won three of their five matches to date, face Pakistan in Hamilton on March 21

Courtney Walsh is "very pleased" with the performances of his West Indies side at the 2022 Women's World Cup and believes they are silencing their pre-tournament critics.

The Caribbean side arrived in New Zealand off the back of a series defeat against South Africa and languishing in seventh position in the ICC rankings. However, after picking up points against New Zealand, England and Bangladesh, they sit third in the table and can open up a four-point gap over India and England with a victory over Pakistan.

"When we left home, a lot of people probably didn’t give us any chance and our last campaign wasn’t as [good] as we would have liked it to be," Walsh said. "This one started very well, so everybody had high hopes, and then we lost two games which is a disappointment. We want to win and do well.

"I'm very pleased with the position we're in now, very happy with the performances of the individuals who have put their hand up. We've had some low-scoring games, but the fighting qualities that the team has shown has been tremendous. As long as that is happening, I'm happy. I think we've come a long way and the performances will just keep improving."

His side's performances have been far from faultless. All three of their victories have been nail-biters, going down to the final few overs, while in their past three matches, against India, Australia and Bangladesh, they've struggled with the bat, scoring 162, 131 and 140 for 9, respectively.

^{West Indies narrowly beat Bangladesh by four runs [Michael Bradley/Getty Images]}

"We are not happy with how we have lost some wickets," Walsh admitted. "We need our players to bat and bat deep, someone in the top five needs to bat to the end. The emphasis is on building partnerships and not losing wickets in clusters, because we did that in the last couple of games."

Addressing his side's four-run victory over Bangladesh, he continued: "The girls showed good fight. You get a low-scoring game and for them to go out and defend it the way they did was excellent. Obviously, we’re not happy with the score, we want more, but to get over the line was very pleasing.

"Bangladesh, they just came off a win, their confidence was high, so it was always going to be a very good game and a very close game. The fighting spirit they have shown in the games they have played so far, with the exception of the India game, has been good. We just have to keep doing that."

And with two games remaining in the groups stages – against Pakistan and South Africa – he is keeping things simple in terms of securing qualification for the semi-finals: "If you get the two wins, it doesn’t come down to net run rate. The game against Pakistan is going to be crucial to try to get the points and we'll see what happens after that.

"We've had some low-scoring games, but the fighting qualities that the team has shown has been tremendous. As long as that is happening, I'm happy"

"If we win the last two games, we are more or less in the semi-finals. I don't want to start putting pressure on the players in this game and it goes pear-shaped. You want to focus on trying to win this game, get the points, get a decent score on board, and then we can decide the approach to the last game."

Pakistan are in a completely different boat – they are out of contention for a top-four finish and haven't won a World Cup match since 2009. However, with West Indies, England and New Zealand still to play, they could have a big role in deciding which sides reach the semi-finals.

"All three wins, that hasn’t changed," said head coach, David Hemp, when asked about his side's goals for the remainder of the tournament. "We obviously can’t qualify but there’ll be a bit of interest because we play a couple of those [who can qualify]. There's some really big games coming up.

"The key is we keep trying, we keep working with the players and keep instilling that belief in themselves but also the way in which they train, how they train and keep challenging the training, so that at some stage they will get over the line in match situations. And then once they do that as a team as a collective, then hopefully you'll see some confidence grow as a team and they will get more wins."