According to Australian batting star Beth Mooney, winning a fourth successive World Cup may have to be done in a “very ugly” way. This is because slow wickets continue to result in low scores in all matches played at just two stadiums in the United Arab Emirates.
Only three batsmen among the 10 teams got past 50 in the opening week of play – none of them Australians – and Mooney, her side’s leading run-scorer, admitted it would be “a bit of a tough game” as the tournament progressed. to.
Watch every WBBL match live on Kayo and ad-free while you play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time benefits >
Australia finished first against New Zealand on Wednesday morning with 8-148 and were second with 4-94 in their first match against Sri Lanka in Sharjah.
The third match against Pakistan at the weekend takes the defending champions to Dubai, where New Zealand scored 160 against India, still an unusual record in a tournament where the average is just 101.
“It’s very different to the conditions back home and there’s been a bit of a tough slog at times with the slow outfield and the big boundaries and the slow wicket itself,” Mooney said after making 40 off 32 balls with just two boundaries against New Zealand. “He said.
“We knew we had to dig pretty deep with the bat throughout this tournament and try to find ways to score runs.
“Sometimes it can look pretty ugly and sometimes it can be okay, but if we find a way to make it work, I think it will lead us in a good direction.”
The Australians managed 13 fours and one six from Ellyse Perry against New Zealand, almost double their boundary match average.
But Mooney said moving the stadium to Dubai would mean ongoing adjustments to batsmen and bowlers while the Australians stored “data” from their opening two matches.
“I think there will be different challenges for us throughout the tournament and we will just have to make adjustments where we can,” she said.
“I don’t know if there is such a thing as cracking the code in cricket because we adapted a little bit to these conditions tonight and we will have to do that again when we play Pakistan in Dubai on Friday night.
“There are always tough games, especially in this format, so we will have another training session on Thursday night and get back together to take a look at Pakistan and then go again on Friday.”
