Townsville Bulletin

Sri Lanka collateral damage in Cup charge

-

MOMENTS after destroying Sri Lanka in a one-sided contest, Australia’s all-conquering women’s cricket team are already focused on defending their T20 World Cup title late in the summer.

Australia crushed the Asian visitors by nine wickets to go 2-0 up in the three-match series with the third tie, but a cleansweep is only a small incentive to the a bigger picture.

Wicketkeep­er Alyssa Healy says the world champions are not satisfied, with February’s World Cup in mind.

“We have had some really good discussion­s about what are the areas that we can further improve on and I think that reflects on the maturity of the squad,” said Healy.

“We are never satisfied and want to keep pushing the standard higher and higher ... everyone is going to be in really good nick come February.

“And I think there are another eight or nine players outside the current squad putting their hand up and wanting selection for the T20 World Cup.”

Australia secured the lopsided victory over Sri Lanka on Monday at North Sydney Oval, after a series-opening 41run win 24 hours earlier.

Meg Lanning’s side gave little away with the ball and completed two classy run-outs to limit the visitors to 8-84, before replying with 1-87 with 10.2 overs spare.

It was in sharp contrast to Sunday when Sri Lankan captain Chamari Atapattu struck a dazzling century.

This time she was dismissed for 16 off 25 balls.

“We spoke at length in our team meeting about how we were going to bowl at their batters and some of the things we could do differentl­y, and we executed that really well,” Healy said.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Australia