Ellyse Perry likely to play as batter only for Australia

CHRISTCHURCH: Australia captain Meg Lanning believes Ellyse Perry will feature for Australia against England in the final of the Women’s World Cup in Christchurch on Sunday, although the injured all-rounder is unlikely to bowl against the defending champions.

Perry, widely considered the best all-rounder in the sport, suffered back spasms in the penultimate round robin game against South Africa causing her to miss the last two matches.

The 30-year-old trained with her teammates on Friday and Lanning is confident Perry will be able to contribute to her team’s efforts to claim Australia’s seventh Women’s World Cup title. “She can definitely play as a specialist bat and that’s probably the most likely scenario to be honest,” Lanning said.

“She hasn’t bowled for a couple of weeks now and it would be difficult for her to come out and bowl in the final...which is fine because she averages over 50 with the bat, and she’s certainly an important part of the batting line-up. At the end of the day, you’ve got to trust your bowlers and back them to be able to deliver and we’ve got six very good bowlers who we’ll take into this game.”

Perry missed the game against Bangladesh in the final round of group matches last week. She then missed the victory over the West Indies in the semi-finals on Wednesday.

England captain Heather Knight is hoping the experience gained from winning the Women’s World Cup in 2017 can help her team defeat favourites Australia for this year’s title in Christchurch on Sunday.

“I think the positive memories that a lot of this group has of winning the 50-over World Cup final will be really useful for us, knowing that we can deal with that pressure when games are close and things are at stake,” said Knight.