West Indies spinner Anisa Mohammed wants her side to rain on Australia’s parade at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020.
- Mohammed revealed her team’s hunger to beat the four-time winners to the title
- The off-spinner was part of the West Indies team that won the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2016
The two teams have been kept apart in the group stages, with Australia in Group A and West Indies in Group B
Mohammed, the highest T20I wicket-taker of all time – helped Windies beat Australia to the title in 2016 and then lost out to the same opposition at the semi-final stage on home soil in 2018.
The 31-year-old unashamedly turned up the heat on the hosts and favorites, saying she’d like nothing better than to foil the victory procession of Meg Lanning’s side.
“We’ve come to win this World Cup and take it back from Australia,” said the vice-captain.“It would be nice to spoil the party. They spoiled ours, so it would be nice to return the favor.” she added
“Australia has been doing really well. They recently played in the tri-series and came out on top, but we’ve been working hard ourselves. The final in 2016 was a really special day. That was probably the biggest highlight of my career – winning a World Cup is something I’d love to do again.”
“As a team, we know what it’s like to win and what it’s like to lose. Winning is definitely better, so we want to win this time. Australia is known as the top team in the world. All teams will be gunning to beat them.”
The two teams met in a bilateral series in September 2019 as an under-strength West Indies were beaten 3-0 and by margins of six, nine and nine wickets respectively. Windies shocked Australia at Eden Gardens back in 2016 as a stunning 66 from Hayley Matthews saw them become the fourth nation to win a major global event.
But they were then humbled in their own backyard in 2018 as Ellyse Perry tore through their order and saw them skittled for 71 in a 71-run semi-final defeat. Experienced fast bowler Shakera Selman fanned the flames of the rivalry by revealing it’s only recently the two teams have started to build relationships.
“We have some history with Australia,” said Selman.“Since the last series, I’ve noticed a lot of the girls have built some sort of friendship and some sort of camaraderie.”
“They’ve beaten us a few times. They were hurting after we beat them in 2016 and they came back to beat us two years later.“It would be a big game if we faced them in the semi-finals but we’ve got to take each one as it comes.” she added.
This article was first published on ICC Website