T20 World Cup: Windies want to spoil Aussie party, says Anisa

DUBAI: West Indies won the Women’s T20 World Cup title in 2016, beating Australia in the final, but ended on the wrong side of the result in 2018 as Australia beat them in the semi-final, that too on home soil.

Anisa Mohammed hasn’t forgotten that, and wants to “spoil the party” and “return the favour” when the next chapter begins in Australia in less than a week.

“We’ve come to win this World Cup and take it back from Australia,” Anisa, whose 118 wickets make her the most successful bowler — man or woman — in T20Is, told ICC. “It would be nice to spoil the party. They spoiled ours, so it would be nice to return the favour.

“Australia have been doing really well. They recently played in the tri-series (against England and India) and came out on top, but we’ve been working hard ourselves.

Back in 2016, West Indies beat Australia, the favourites, at Eden Gardens in Kolkata in the final, with Hayley Matthews’ career-defining 45-ball 66 and Stafanie Taylor’s 57-ball 59 taking them to the target of 149 in the last over of the chase.

In 2018, Australia’s bowlers were at the top of their game, finishing West Indies off for 71 for a 71-run win in North Sound.

More recently, the two sides met in a bilateral series in the Caribbean in September 2019, where Australia blanked the home side 3-0 in the T20Is — they won the ODIs by the same margin.

“We have some history with Australia,” quick bowler Shakera Selman said. “Since the last series, I’ve noticed a lot of the girls have built some sort of friendship and some sort of camaraderie.