23 March - Wellington - West Indies player Anisa Mohammed pre-match press conference
Reporter: One more group stage game, what’s the pressure like going into this last match?
Anisa Mohammed: So, we kind of found ourselves in this position, having a must-win match tomorrow and then hope that South Africa can beat India or there can be an upset somewhere along, but we can only control the things we can control, so tomorrow’s game is going to be very crucial and very important for us and we have to play our best game tomorrow and just sit and wait and hopefully be able to go into the semifinals.
Reporter: You’ve played South Africa recently, although you didn’t win that series, but what can you take from that last series against South Africa as you go into this crucial match tomorrow?
Anisa: I think once our batters can bat and put runs on the board, we know that we have a good enough bowling team that we’ll be able to go out and defend our total. So I think, it’s more a matter of our batting giving us some runs to work with and hopefully we can take it up in the field as well.
Reporter: How frustrating has it been with the inconsistencies of the bat, one day you have Hayley Mathews, then the other two might not fire, then you may have the captain firing and two others may not – how frustrating has this been?
Anisa: Yeah it’s really difficult especially as a bowler that you have to go out and defend small totals, but hopefully tomorrow we’ll have all the batters showing up to the party and putting runs on the board, we know that some players have performed and some haven’t, so runs are due from some of the other players and we're hoping that tomorrow will be the day.
Reporter: I want to ask, is the plot still the same for the team prior to the tournament and no being in the situation that we're in?
Anisa: Yeah, I think so. I think we still are very positive going into tomorrow's game. As I said earlier, we can only control the things we can control and we found ourselves in this position. So it's a matter of winning tomorrow's game and hoping that something goes our way and we are able to qualify for the semifinals.
Reporter: Would you say that something went wrong or is it just a situation where the team kind of strayed away from what the original plans were?
Anisa: I think it's just a matter of us sticking to the plan, what we struggled with in the past few games was playing against spin, and that's something I'm sure we need to work on today in the nets. But I think once we're able to get through those spin overs and find a way to rotate the strike, then I'm sure we'll be able to put runs on the board and give us a fair enough chance to win tomorrow's game.
Reporter: I mean, if you don't qualify for the semies would you say that it was a successful tournament for the West Indies?
Anisa: No I wouldn't. We've won two of the toughest games at the start of the tournament and to come and lose now would be very heartbreaking. Not just me for all the team members but we're really hoping to be able to change things around tomorrow. We're still positive, we know there's still a chance. So we’re going to go hard tomorrow.
Reporter: Seeing all games we’ve played - looking at the tournament in general. What are your thoughts on this edition of the of the World Cup in terms of our performances and other performances that you know, people via social media have been seeing this is one of the most exciting World Cups ever. Tell us your thoughts on it.
Anisa: Yeah, I think when you look at most of the games, they all came down to the wire. And I think coming into this tournament a lot of teams thought you know, West Indies would probably be a walkover team. And to see that we were able to put up a fight in so many of the games, shows that we're improving little by little and it's just a matter of us pulling out a big performance tomorrow. But in terms of women's cricket as well, it goes to show that all teams are improving. You know, usually in a World Cup you will just see top three, top four teams just beating teams, but now we actually have a lot more teams competing. So I think that's really good for women's cricket going forward.
Reporter: And if you can summarize your tournament for us, how has it been for you?
Anisa: A bit up and down. I've been able to pick up wickets but I've also gone for a lot of runs. Something that I don't really like you know, I try to always try to be economical, that has not gone my way so far in this tournament and I have another game tomorrow and hopefully we'll be able to continue to the semifinals. So I still have a couple of games and I hope to turn things around.
Reporter: Looking forward to using your knowledge and team's knowledge seen that we've played Australia on this pitch - How are you going to use that knowledge in terms of playing South Africa, obviously we had a series against them before coming here to the World Cup. How all of that is going to factor in to the game tomorrow?
Anisa: I think when you look at this pitch, there's a lot of runs on it. So as a bowler it's more of sticking to the basics and waiting for the batters to make the mistake. Don't try anything. Just be patient. And you know, once you build up the pressure. So I think it's more of sticking to the basics.
Reporter: Usually we don’t like to talk about opponents performances right but the fact that South Africa lost yesterday to Australia still wanting 2 on the table, does that factor in into giving us a confidence booster that okay, we can get over them tomorrow.
Anisa: Yeah, seeing the way they played yesterday - Yes, we saw they had a really bad day in the field. For our sake we’re hoping that they also have a bad day all around tomorrow so that we can win and hopefully be able to beat India and sort of give us a chance going through.