Hard questions after favourites’ early Cup exit
AUSTRALIA will conduct a full review of what went wrong in its Women’s World Cup campaign and its approach to the bowling attack is sure to be examined.
While spinners have been potent throughout the tournament, the Cup favourites regularly struggled to find breakthroughs, which is sure to have more questions asked about opting to play three spinners and just five recognised bowlers.
Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu and India’s Harmanpreet Kaur posted massive unbeaten scores (178 and 171 respectively) against them, and in its eight matches Australia only bowled sides out three times, two of which were with the final ball of the last over.
The question of whether they should play a third seamer was raised by the likes of former players Lyn Larsen and Lisa Sthalekar after Australia lost its group match to England.
The Aussies struggled to remove England’s middle order as Katherine Brunt and Jenny Gunn put on a seventh-wicket stand of 85 off 73 for a strong finish and a target of 260.
In the semi-final, Kaur tore their bowlers apart, smashing 20 fours and seven sixes.