Lankans pile on pressure
AUSTRALIA are under the pump and Sri Lanka aim to cash in on the pressure on the hosts when they meet in tonight’s key Women’s T20 World Cup clash in Perth.
Friday night’s shock opening loss to India means Australia probably need to win all three of their remaining group games in order to qualify for the semi-finals.
Sri Lanka are ranked eighth in the world and on paper should not pose much of a problem to the defending champions. But they are more than capable of pulling off an upset – as shown by their two displays over the past week.
They beat world No.2 England by 10 wickets in a warmup match.
And they could have beaten world No.3 New Zealand in their Cup opener on Saturday if they had held on to some crucial catches in the field.
Sri Lanka coach Harsha de Silva said his team would be up for the challenge. “I think we all agree that Australia is one of the favourites,” de Silva said.
“It’s hard for me to say from this side of the fence, but I’m pretty sure there must be pressure on them – playing at home and also losing the first game.
“We are up for a challenge, we know every game is going to be pretty tough – especially in our group.
“It’s always going to be a daunting task to make the top two in that group. But that’s what we train for – to challenge and, hopefully, to win.”
Australia captain Meg Lanning insists there’s no panic within her side despite having to come to grips with their T20 World Cup campaign becoming a knockout scenario.
Only the top two teams from each group progress, meaning Australia now face crunch games against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and NZ.
“It’s not ideal, we would have loved to have won. But it’s a long way to go in this tournament,” said Lanning, who revealed her team were flat after the loss to India but had since picked themselves up.