They built on learnings from a less clinical performance than expected against Sri Lanka and are looking unstoppable
Valkerie Baynes09-Oct-20243:16
Clinical Australia complicate NRR matters for others
Good teams learn quickly.So when Australia’s top order all found themselves set on a now notoriously difficult pitch in Sharjah, they set the blueprint for what was already shaping as a crucial match on Sunday for them and, even more so, India.Australia’s 60-run thumping of New Zealand was their second match at the ground while India will play their first and only group game in Sharjah against them. But it wasn’t all bad for India, who stand to gain from New Zealand’s net run rate sliding into negative territory as they prepare to play Sri Lanka in Dubai on Wednesday.India’s upset at the hands of New Zealand followed by their cautious approach in the chase against Pakistan, whom they beat by six wickets with seven balls to spare, leaves them fourth in Group A with a net run rate of -1.217.ESPNcricinfo LtdIf India bat first and score 130 on Wednesday, they need to restrict Sri Lanka to 84 to go ahead of New Zealand’s NRR and to 81 to convert their NRR into the positive. If Sri Lanka score 100 batting first, India need to chase it down in 12.4 overs or less to go ahead of New Zealand’s NRR and in 12.1 overs or less to turn their NRR positive.Australia’s latest victory was built on learnings from a less clinical performance than expected from them when they defeated a struggling Sri Lanka by six wickets with 34 balls to spare at the same venue on Saturday. Beth Mooney’s unbeaten 43 from 38 balls was then the standout performance of an innings where no other batter passed 17.On this occasion, against New Zealand, Alyssa Healy, Ellyse Perry and Mooney – again the top-scorer with 40 off 32 balls – all got themselves in and found the boundary with greater authority to take Australia to 148 for 8, comfortably eclipsing the previous best total in Sharjah during this tournament: England’s 125 for 3 the previous evening.This too was a night game and the Australians looked more comfortable than they had in the searing afternoon heat of the Sri Lanka game. With New Zealand’s spinners offering more pace than the Sri Lankans, Australia’s top-order batters capitalised.Healy signalled her intent, repeatedly clearing extra cover to make the vast outfield look manageable for arguably the first time in six games at the ground en route to 26 in 20 balls and helping her side to 43 for 1 in the powerplay.More was to come, with Perry skipping down the pitch to despatch Eden Carson into the fence at long-on and muscling the next ball through square leg for four.Mooney managed just two fours but her knock was crucial in an innings where Phoebe Litchfield’s run-a-ball 18 was the only other score in double figures after the top three.”We spoke this morning and yesterday that it looked a little bit better than the wicket we were on the other day, still very different to conditions to back home and a bit of a hard slog at times with the slow outfield and the big boundaries and the slow wicket itself,” Mooney said.”We know throughout this tournament we’re going to have to dig pretty deep with the bat and try and find a way to score runs and sometimes that’s going to look pretty ugly and sometimes it’s going to be okay. If we just find a way to make it work, that will hold us in good stead, which is what we did tonight.”Being able to get out there in that first game and get an understanding of the conditions was always good and to bank that sort of data is always helpful moving throughout the tournament. But I think the natural dialogue is that it’s going to be pretty tough and you’ve got to really be composed at the crease and make good decisions and be really clear on what options you have and where to hit what holes.”She also said the performance was “not far off” Australia’s best in recent times. In the lead-up to the tournament they hosted New Zealand and won their T20I series 3-0 but twice suffered batting collapses and were bowled out once, for only the second time since early 2020.”If we’re being really critical, we’ve probably missed out on a few with the bat towards the middle and the back-end there with a few wickets in a row, but certainly really pleasing with that we’ve got ourselves into at this tournament,” she said.That was in no small part down to the legspin of Amelia Kerr, who snared 4 for 26. Having removed Mooney and Perry, she took two more wickets, bowling the big-hitting Grace Harris for a first-ball duck and ending Georgia Wareham’s knock, caught by Lea Tahuhu.But Australia had also learned with the ball.Megan Schutt, Player of the Match with 3 for 12 against Sri Lanka, opened the bowling again and, with Healy standing up to the stumps, offered no width for New Zealand to work with and bowled Georgia Plimmer with a beauty dipping in, beating the attempted pull and rattling the woodwork.That made Schutt the leading wicket-taker in Women’s T20 World Cups with 46 but she wasn’t done. Returning in the 12th over, she had Kerr caught by Annabel Sutherland, running in from long-on, and then bowled Carson to complete the rout, and a miserly return of 3 for 3 from 3.2 overs as New Zealand were bowled out for 88 in the final over.For New Zealand, Kerr maintained that their destiny was still in their own hands: “First, you want to win the game, that’s the key. You don’t want to go out there thinking you’ve got to beat them by X amount of runs… if we win both [remaining games], we give ourselves the best chance to qualify.”Australia next play Pakistan on Friday in Dubai and New Zealand play Sri Lanka on Saturday, followed by Pakistan.
