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Australia captain Meg Lanning believes their chances of a successful T20 World Cup defence title in South Africa will rely on her champions absorbing the pressure as much as piling it back on the opposition.
As they prepared to take on New Zealand in their tournament opener on Saturday in Paarl, Lanning said on the eve of the match that the five-time champions Australia were “on a level pegging” with the remaining nine teams.
She played down her team’s top-billing as hot favourites to lift the trophy, saying: “Every team comes into this tournament starting on zero points and has to go out there and win the World Cup – and that’s the way we’re approaching this tournament.”
Talking ahead of the team’s first training session at Boland Park in Paarl on Friday, Lanning added: “We have high expectations of ourselves. We’re obviously coming here to win.
“That’s the end goal, but we know there’s a lot of steps to go through before we even get to that point.”
Top-ranked T20I side Australia’s three-wicket shock defeat to the No.10-ranked Ireland in their second and final warm-up fixture on Wednesday had vice-captain Alyssa Healy describe the result as “nothing too stressful”.
Lanning, for her part, felt there were lessons to be taken from the upset.
“Coming here, looking forward to the challenge, and no matter what team we come up against — as the Ireland game showed — we have to be at our best to win. We were not surprised by that. We expect that,” said the captain.
“That’s the challenge that we’ve got as a group. We know teams are going to come pretty hard at us and we’ll have to sort of absorb some pressure and also put them under the pump as well, which is something we’ve done really well over the last few years in particular.
“So we’re really looking forward to the challenge and what better way to start than against a team like New Zealand.”
How Australia may fare in the tournament could depend, to a degree, on the form of evergreen star allrounder Ellyse Perry. During their victorious India tour in December, the 32-year-old finished second only to Beth Mooney on the run charts, averaging 82.50 for her 165 runs in three innings.
“Ellyse is very experienced and is someone who turns up at the big tournaments and plays well in big games, and that’s a really good trait to have,” said Lanning.
“And I think we’ll see that throughout this one.
“I think her batting has gone to another level. Through that India series, we saw that. She’s a very dynamic player. She can hit the ball as far and as hard as anyone in world cricket.
“So, it’s nice to see that she’s sort of taken that step and really utilising everything that she’s got. I think the opposition should be pretty nervous about what she might bring.”
Australia last toured South Africa for the 2005 ODI World Cup, their March 2020 six-match bilateral series in the country having been called off due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hoping that the “conditions are really good for competitive cricket and some really free-flowing T20 cricket” in the World Cup, Lanning made it clear her side will “come out here expecting that”.
“And if we need to adjust, then we will,” she added.
Sri Lanka have caused a major surprise in the opening game of the Women’s Twenty20 World Cup, holding their nerve in the field in a frantic finish to beat hosts South Africa by three runs.
Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu hit 68 from 50 balls to set up a total of 4-129 after her team was sent in to bat.
Sri Lanka’s bowling and fielding carried their home, with spinners Inoka Ranaweera, Oshadi Ranasinghe and Sugandika Kumari accounting for seven of the wickets as South Africa finished on 9-126.
Sri Lanka also pulled off two important runouts in the last two overs to cut short late counterattacks by South African tailenders Sinalo Jafta and Shabnim Ismail.
Last batter Nonkululeko Mlaba lofted a drive over mid-off for four off the last ball of the game for South Africa but it didn’t matter as the hosts needed eight off that delivery to win. Sri Lanka’s players celebrated their famous win energetically at Newlands in Cape Town and all ended up in a huddle on the field doing a team chant.
Athapaththu was a crucial leader with her performance with the bat but also for marshalling her bowlers and fielders in the tense final overs.
“I always try and lead from the front,” Athapaththu said. “I try and be a role model for the team. We played good cricket today.”
Athapaththu hit 12 fours in her half-century and put on a partnership of 82 off 62 balls with 17-year-old Vishmi Gunaratne, who made 35 off 34 batting at No.3 and promises to be the next star of Sri Lankan women’s cricket after Athapaththu.
The defeat for South Africa was a bitter blow and came after a tumultuous buildup to the tournament when captain and allrounder Dane van Niekerk, one of the world’s top players, was left out of the squad for the tournament for failing a fitness and conditioning test.
The decision to drop Van Niekerk because she missed the cutoff time for a two-kilometre run by 18 seconds has stoked hot debate in South Africa.
Coach Hilton Moreeng said the team’s fitness requirements were “non-negotiable” and Van Niekerk ended up working as a TV commentator at the tournament-opener as her team lost.
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“One game doesn’t define a team and the World Cup still has a long way to go,” new South Africa captain Sune Luus said.
Defending champions Australia, who have won five of the seven T20 World Cups played, start their campaign against New Zealand in a night game in Paarl on Saturday
The Australians are favoured to retain their title at the World Cup despite a surprise loss to Ireland in a warmup game this week, their first T20 defeat in nearly two years.
“We come into this World Cup on level pegging with everybody else and we’re coming here to win and we know how difficult that is,” said Australia captain Meg Lanning, who has led her country to three of those World Cup titles.
© AAP
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