West Indies women's captain Stafanie Taylor and her opening partner Hayley Matthews on Sunday expressed their delight by saying that the feeling of having grabbed the World Twenty20 cricket trophy has not sunk in yet.
“Not sunk in as yet (the win), we have a good feeling right now but it has not yet got to us,” Matthews said.
West Indies skipper Stafanie Taylor | Salil Bera
Echoing the same sentiments her captain voiced: ”In the morning you don’t need to go and play and when I look at my trophy I would say 'Is this real?' When you reach the Caribbean, it is going to hit you. A lot of people there, cameras and everything, you then realise you have won the World Cup.”
The duo knitted a 120-run partnership in pursuit of Australia’s 148/5 which in turn helped their side skip past the total comfortably.
“We never discussed the total. We did not get the start we wanted just three runs in the first two overs. But it was good to keep wickets in hand, and we said to each other we could do this,” Taylor said looking back on the partnership.
The pair who play for different franchises in the Women’s Big Bash League (BBL) in Australia said the experience helped them assessing the bowlers here.
“Yes, the WBBL experience helped me a lot. I got to know the bowlers a lot better. Helped in my confidence today,” Matthews quipped.
Taylor, who was impressed with the crowd support here, said a lot more girls need to come out and play the game in the Caribbeans to take it forward.
“There’s not much of interest back home. We need to go into schools. Actually there are girls wanting to play but there is no one to push them,” she said.
West Indies team members celebrate their win against Australia in the Women's World T20 final | Salil Bera
“Here the crowds been great. Good to see the support. As women cricket grows we will get to see bigger crowds, I guess.”
Taylor added there was a lack of infrastructure in the West Indies and refrained from commenting on their problems with the board.
“We need infrastructure. In England, Australia they have it in plenty. We need more young girls coming up. We need to start building these infrastructure now so that we have young girls taking to the game,” she said.”
Losing captain Meg Lanning felt they were a few runs short and that 160 plus would have been a more challenging target for the eventual winners.
“One run in the last over was a pivotal moment. We needed 160 plus. It was disappointing not to get there after a good start,” Lanning said.
West Indies were able to break Australia’s winning streak of three consecutive WorldT20 titles and Lanning felt other teams are catching up with them fast.
“Everyone’s catching up fast, you see. We did well throughout but just could not do it today,” she said.