| Player: | CE Taylor, IT Guha |
| Event: | ICC Women's World Twenty20 2009 |
Englands Claire Taylor and Isa Guha are now all ready to take on the world in the inaugural ICC Womens World Twenty20 to be played in England from 11 to 21 June. The pair were the integral part of the winning English team in the ICC Womens World Cup in Australia in March.
Opening batswoman Taylor said: I think its really exciting that the women have an ICC World Twenty20. Its even more exciting that its a tournament being played alongside the guys. Weve come back to England after winning the 50-over World Cup, have had a couple of months at home giving us time to prepare and think about Twenty20 cricket.
The type of cricket is about being a bit more aggressive, a bit more attacking, so weve got to be ready to get straight into the tournament, she added.
Medium-pacer Isa Guha also commented that Twenty20 cricket was a different game and said that as far as her personal game plan is concerned not much will change.
Twenty20 cricket is a really different game to the one-day format. Weve played a few games in the last few years and obviously were working out the best way to play the game. For me it doesnt change too much from the 50-over format, its just about putting in some variation in my bowling and keeping the batter thinking at all times.
I think in terms of getting people to come and watch the matches, I think it will be easier as its the shorter format of the game and it will give people the chance to see girls hitting boundaries and generally being a lot more hard-hitting. Theres this old-school thought that women cant hit the ball as hard as men and well be able to disprove that a lot more in these Twenty20 games.
Claire Taylor, who was the player of the tournament at the ICC Womens World Cup and was also named one of Wisdens five cricketers of the year in 2009, said that the shortest format will bring a variety of styles to the pitch.
Womens Twenty20 is about high skill levels, the best fielding teams are going to be the ones that cut off the most runs, if we play on good quick outfield. I think well keep the boundaries in quite a lot, so then I think batters will start to hit sixes. I think it will be the team that fields best and keeps the runs down thats going to win this event.
Its great the event is being hosted in England. Well be based in Taunton for the group matches, which is the home of womens cricket in England. Its brilliant as then well be the warm-up games, so to speak, for the mens semi-finals and final, which is fantastic for the game, she was quoted as saying in the ICC newsletter.
The 24-year-old Guha admitted that Twenty20 was sometimes seen as a batters game but this doesnt seem to fluster the young England star who has taken 89 ODI wickets.
You could say Twenty20 is a batters game but I thrive off it knowing the batters are coming to get me, thats when I think I perform at my best. I feel Im more in control at that point as you know theyre all trying to score boundaries off you. If they do get off to a flyer, then you know its OK as its a Twenty20 game and thats expected.
Anything can happen in Twenty20 cricket; one person can have a really good game and take it from there, making it a tournament with no favourites. She also said that the English will have the home side advantage and knowing the conditions better than others would surely come in handy.
We maybe have a slight advantage, in that we are playing at home and hopefully the home crowd will get behind us.
Taylor, who has amassed 3,611 ODI runs at an average of 40.5 said that this format is a dynamic one and clear ideas in the mind of the batter is very crucial to succeed in T20.
Something has to happen with every ball in Twenty20, as a batter you have to have clear ideas where your hitting areas are, where youre looking to score runs , its just non-stop, there are no random chances of Oh Ive scored five off this over, Ill have a dot ball and then Ill have a look again theres no time for it, no time for a dot ball, its really hectic.