Women's World T20: Run out by Dottin turned the game in favour of West Indies: Captain Taylor after beating New Zealand

Mumbai: West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor said that the run out of Sophie Devine by Deandra Dottin changed the game as they ended up beating New Zealand in the ICC Women’s World T20 semi-final at the Wankhede on Thursday. “Anytime (Deandra) Dottin gets a run out it’s something spectacular. She is so vibrant in the field and when whenever she gets a run out it brings the whole flame back, the run out changed the game and had us back in it,” she told reporters at the post-match conference. When quizzed whether targeting spinners was part of the gameplan, she said: “No it wasn’t our game plan, maybe it was Britney’s (Cooper’s) gameplan, it was no time to play their game, it is time to play our game, the way we played them was fantastic. We knew, we had to put up a big total to push NZ back, and 143 was pretty decent."

“We played Australia in the semi-finals (in previous World T20s) and now we play them in the final, they are a good and tough team, if we are consistent and play it like today, and bowl well against them we fancy our chance.” She said the men’s team supported their team and captain Darren Sammy wished the team for the match. The captain said Anisa Mohammed did start off as planned and it forced her to come back early on which “worked”. When asked whether she was thinking about a hat-trick after dismissing two set Kiwi batswomen, Taylor replied in negative.

New Zealand women’s skipper Suzie Bates also termed Devine’s run out as a crucial moment of the game. “Sophie’s run out was pretty crucial, Dottin fielded exceptionally well and threw it on the stumps and Sophie, the way she was going could have taken the game away from the West Indies, so there are few turning points, the way (Britney) Cooper batted, that high in the innings and bat pretty deep and make 140 a good total for them,” Bates added. The skipper also attributed losing top order batsmen early led to the loss. “We just lost wickets at the top order and put pressure on the lower order and in the whole tournament the top order has done the job,” she added. “I don’t think we played poorly today, the West Indies came out and hit their plan. They were better than us,” she added.