Australia are on the board in the T20 Women’s World Cup, but the scrappy overnight win against Sri Lanka further underlined top-order issues that need addressing before crunch games to come.
Experienced heads Rachael Haynes (60 off 47) and Meg Lanning (41* off 44) saw the Aussies home after a horror start threatened to end their tournament before it had barely started.
After the Sri Lankans posted 6/122, Australia capitulated at the top of the order, reduced to 3/10 through a series of sloppy dismissals.
Alyssa Healy and Ash Gardner were sent packing in almost identical fashion, bowled by the left-arm in-swing of Udeshika Prabodhani.
Both tried to cut balls that jagged back, appearing surprised by the swing on offer despite its presence when the Aussies themselves were in the field. Gardner especially had the benefit of seeing her partner’s wicket mere moments before.
(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Three balls after Gardner’s dismissal, Beth Mooney left the Aussies in a panic after dancing down the track to be stumped by a considerable margin.
At the very least, Gardner and Mooney’s dismissals showed a lapse of judgement – a pattern that emerged in Australia’s loss to India on Friday night.
When Poonam Yadav got on a roll in Sydney, instead of recognising the leg spinner as a potential match winner who needed to be seen off, several of Australia’s experienced top six continued to take avoidable risks by using their feet to the loopy spin.
It was a tactic that backfired considerably as the home side lost a game they seemingly had control over.
Opener Nicole Bolton (not currently in the Australian squad) said in commentary that the top order’s approach was lacking.
“There was definitely a bit of swing around, and at times we looked to play a little bit too square,” she said on Fox Sports’ coverage.
“What we know at the WACA is that anything’s that’s full you need to play nice and straight and unfortunately some of those girls might look back and think they may not have made the right decisions.”
Importantly, however, the win means the Aussies are still in the tournament; Haynes and Lanning’s tournament-saving partnership of 95 has kept the hosts’ chances alive.
Luck was on their side, too, the pair kept at the crease through botched reviews and drop catches on several occasions.
Post-game Lanning said that while she was pleased with their bowling and fielding efforts – aspects of the Aussies’ game that has remained consistent in recent times – she acknowledged they needed to do more to avoid more ‘unsettling starts’ with the bat.
“We would’ve like to have played better and we definitely need to improve heading into the next couple of games but sometimes it’s nice to just get off the mark,” she said.
(Photo by Will Russell-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
While the team continues to tell media it is ‘enjoying’ the dual pressure of being both hosts and strong favourites, uncharacteristic mistakes with the bat does little to assuage the thinking that the scenario might just be playing on their mind.
Perhaps the victory in Perth, the monkey off the back, might provide the impetus for a return to the dominance we’ve seen int he last 18 months in this format.
Australia had, after all, beaten Sri Lanka 3-0 earlier this summer, by margins of 41 runs, 9 wickets, then a whopping 132 runs.
It had never lost to Chamari Atapattu’s side in 16 occasions (in T20 internationals), yet so nearly went down on Monday night. Ellyse Perry was pushed down to number seven against Sri Lanka, and perhaps a move up the order looms as Matthew Mott looks to sure-up his top order.
While the all-important victory was lodged, the missed opportunity to improve their net run-rate may come back to bite later in the group stage.
The Aussies next travel to Canberra for Thursday night’s clash against Bangladesh, who went down to India by 18 runs on Monday night.
HR
Roar Rookie
She has hit a bit of a dip in form too (24 runs in her last four innings I think), though her results as an opener are pretty handy. I wonder whether Gardner wouldn't be better off dropping down the order if they lose an early wicket - given her attacking style of play, Australia can get themselves in a bit of trouble if they lose both her and Healy early. Lanning and Perry both seen better-served by a bit of time to get themselves in and can then increase their scoring rate as the innings progresses, so it makes more sense to me that one of them comes in if Australia lose an early wicket.
HR
Roar Rookie
Exactly. There’s a player in pretty recent history that has a bit in common with Healy (a dominating opening bat with a good track record who went through an awful run of form about six months ago), the selectors stuck with him, and he scored 335 this summer.
HR
Roar Rookie
True. Patterson is young enough to still be in the frame, and he's probably the next man in should Wade stop scoring runs (if the selectors don't go to an allrounder).
Phil
Guest
I cannot understand why Elise Perry is pushed so far down the batting order. She surely has to rank as one of, if not the best, batter in the team
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Mainly the questions are about form though. The batting lineup they have is actually pretty good. Just a number of players seem to have hit poor form at just the wrong time. If you have everyone in form, the current lineup might be good. But if you are on pitches where it's hard to really hit out at the top or you have players struggling for form, maybe the option is to send in Perry at the top as she's the sort of "proper batter" who can look to be the rock that the innings can be built on.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Totally right Bush. A player who's shown over a number of years what a quality player they can be at that level rightly gets a bit more leeway through a trough of form compared to someone who's never done anything since being selected. As they say, form is temporary, class is permanent. Someone who's shown consistent class for a long period of time will always get more leeway through a form trough than someone who has never done any good since selected. The big issue with Maddinson was that he should never have been selected in the first place. You can't grab someone in terrible Shield form to make their test debut and expect them to suddenly come good and score runs in tests when they haven't been doing it in the Shield at all that season. Picking Maddinson on current form might be reasonable, but back then he was on a hiding to nothing.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Ferguson was certainly unlucky, his debut happened to be in a game that caused an overhaul of the selection panel themselves who decided to almost throw out the existing team and almost start from scratch. A bit like Kurtis Patterson was unlucky that the two tests he played were the last two before Smith and Warner returned, meaning that there was always going to be a squeeze and some unlucky players would be dropped, of which he was one. Both of those were unusual situations, so precedents in more normal selections probably can't really be drawn.
The Bush
Roar Guru
How are Chappell and Healy comparable to Nic Maddinson? Chappell scored a century on debut... his run of bad form was years after he'd established himself. Ditto Healy. That type of player will also be given "favourable treatment" by selectors compared to a player who has no body of work to rely on. I'm not a fan of discarding players a few games after a debut, but even then it's still not comparable to backing a champion to come good again.
HR
Roar Rookie
How about Callum Ferguson? One match, got run out in the first innings off a misfield, scored bugger-all in the second (in which only three players scored more than bugger-all), then got dropped, never to be seen again.
E-Meter
Roar Rookie
With respect to Maddinson though, he was dreadfully hopeless.
Eden
Guest
Not a great time for so many players to be out of form with the bat! A couple of catches taken by Sri Lanka and this would be a very different story. Also, just FYI, it's "shore up" not "sure up." English is a weird language.
JOHN ALLAN
Guest
Healy has made only 1 decent score in about 10 innings however her position is safe. Reminds me of Greg Chappell some years ago. Yet some players when first selected are not given the same favourable treatment by selectors if they don't succeed. Nic Maddinson is a prime example.
JGK
Roar Guru
Sri Lanka were genuinely awful in the field so Aust got very lucky.
Mango Jack
Roar Guru
We are not where we want to be but hopefully last night's fightback will bring some momentum. That was a clinical partnership by Lanning and Haynes, methodically chipping away at the target (and riding a bit of luck), then unleashing when the end was in sight. I just can't understand why SL allowed the pair to score easy singles.
Peter
Roar Rookie
Can only hope they're building up to some form, as they've been fairly unconvincing so far.