Australia get Women’s T20 World Cup defence off to winning start

The Australian women have delivered a typically clinical start to their Women’s T20 World Cup defence in Sharjah on Saturday, defeating world No.7 Sri Lanka by six wickets.

Sri Lanka opted to bat first and were in trouble early when both openers struggled to get off the mark.

Vishmi Gunaratne ended up falling for a 10-ball duck, while captain Chamari Athapaththu was not much better with three runs from 12 balls.

At 2/6 partway through the fourth over, Harshitha Samarawickrama (23 from 35) helped produce something of a rebuild alongside Nilashika Silva (29 from 40).

The scoring rate was far too slow, however, with Australia’s Megan Schutt strangling the Sri Lankan batsmen as she racked up figures of 3/12 from four overs.

A target of 7/93 was eventually posted, well below the par score for the pitch.

“We played good cricket in the last two months but unfortunately, we lost against Pakistan and Australia,” reflected Athapaththu after the match.

“We have struggled little bit with the bat.

“But we cannot complain about these things and we have to adjust and play positive cricket all the time.

“The batting unit is dependent on the first three-four batters, so the rest of the batters have struggled in this competition.

“We need to improve our batting definitely.

“We have to play positive and fearless cricket, and hopefully the conditions will be good for us, and I hope our girls will perform.”

In response, Australia were largely untroubled across the course of their innings, with the exception of an initial hiccup.

Both Alyssa Healy and Georgia Wareham fell cheaply, but good partnerships between Beth Mooney – who top scored on 43 not out – and Ellyse Perry (17 from 15) and Ashleigh Gardner (12 from 15) got the defending champions across the line comfortably.

“Good result at the start of the tournament, and we will take some confidence out of that,” reflected captain Healy after the victory.

“We were decent without being perfect.

“Adapted to the conditions quickly with the ball.

“They threw heat at us early, but we took our opportunities later.”

Healy also alluded to a few changes in the Australian team across the tournament, saying that they are “blessed with batting depth and don’t really know what to do with it”.

Australia’s odds to win their fourth consecutive Women’s T20 World Cup remain strong across cricket betting sites, with BetOnline putting them at $1.72, well ahead of England ($4.33) and India ($8.50).

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