Australia captain Meg Lanning says her champion group is as hungry as ever as they put together to move to South Africa and defend their Women’s Twenty20 World Cup title.
Rain prevented Australia getting a ultimate probability to fine-tune earlier than leaving dwelling soil, with their third T20 in opposition to Pakistan rained out on Sunday afternoon in Canberra with no ball being bowled.
Light however persistent rain at Manuka Oval meant the gamers by no means took to the sector for the useless rubber encounter, leaving the hosts to assert the three-game collection 2-0.
The gamers will now head to Sydney for Monday evening’s Australian Cricket Awards earlier than flying to South Africa on Tuesday, with warm-up video games scheduled in opposition to India (February 6) and Ireland (February 8).
Australia head into the match as a sizzling favorite, however Lanning stated they might be coping with a string of groups coming to take their crown.
“We’re very aware there’s a lot of good teams out there who are chasing the same amount of success; we certainly aren’t complacent in any way,” she stated.
“We have high expectations on ourselves … we’re a very driven, very competitive group so that naturally lends itself to big tournaments like this where you need to be at your best.”
The skipper stated Australia had not been planning to make use of Sunday’s conflict to offer depth gamers an opportunity heading into the showpiece match, though 9 bowlers have been utilized in Friday’s second recreation of the collection to cut back the workload on the frontline quicks.
Australia cruised to a pair of eight-wicket wins within the first two video games in opposition to Pakistan in Sydney and Hobart, with a five-wicket haul from Megan Schutt and an unbeaten half-century from Ellyse Perry the standout performances.
Star keeper-batter Alyssa Healy didn’t play within the collection after a calf damage from the current tour of India, however will probably be on the airplane to South Africa and is a chance to function within the warm-up video games.
“She’s striking well, it’s all going to plan … I assume if she can, she’ll play some of those practice games over there,” Lanning stated.
“She’s a very entertaining batter who takes the game on, puts the opposition under pressure from ball one … that’s an important part of T20 cricket.
“The different factor is simply expertise in large video games … she’s carried out very well below stress earlier than, and that is one thing not each group has.”
Australia’s opening recreation of the World Cup will probably be in opposition to New Zealand in Paarl on February 12.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
