Deitz rues West Indies Women’s worst performance as Ireland deals qualification blow

West Indies Women’s head coach Shane Deitz admitted his side produced their poorest performance when it mattered most after suffering a six-wicket defeat to Ireland in their final group match, leaving their qualification hopes hanging by a thread.
With a place in the next stage within their control, the Caribbean side failed to deliver under pressure, posting an underwhelming total before Ireland comfortably chased it down to secure a vital victory.
Despite the defeat, West Indies are not yet eliminated and could still progress to the next round depending on the outcome of the remaining group fixtures.
Reflecting on the disappointing performance, Deitz did not hide his frustration.
“Yeah, obviously extremely frustrating. We probably bought our worst game for the most important game. Destiny was in our hands, and we weren’t able to get across the line, so it was very disappointing, more disappointing than frustrating, because we probably didn’t deserve to win.
“So it’s not that we played a good game and we just lost; we played a pretty poor game. Ireland took the opportunities, and congratulations to them.”
Deitz acknowledged that the conditions suited Ireland’s bowling attack, with the slow surface rewarding changes of pace, but insisted the wicket was not the main reason behind his team’s struggles.
“Yeah, we saw it was a bit slow. Taking pace off the ball was going to be the way forward, and they bowled quite slow, so the conditions definitely suited them a little bit, but we talked about it.
“I think the wicket or the way they bowled didn’t contribute to a lot of wickets. I think we contributed to a lot of the wickets ourselves, so we really ain’t got ourselves to blame, not the wicket.
“We should have scored. We had opportunities with some bad balls we could have put away, and we got out to some of them, and we didn’t capitalise on the bad balls enough.”
The Australian coach believes West Indies left at least 20 to 30 runs on the field, suggesting a more competitive total would likely have changed the outcome.
“There was enough there, I think, and we should have scored 150, and I think that would have been enough to win the game.”
The defeat left the West Indies facing an anxious wait as they now rely on other group results to determine whether they can still sneak into the next stage.