The two teams set to battle it out at Basin Reserve on Wednesday in the first semi-final of ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 couldn’t have had more different routes to the semi-final.
Australia sewed up a semi-final spot with two games to go while West Indies could only watch on as South Africa defeated India in the last over of the final group game to confirm the Windies’ place in the final four.
It perhaps puts the pressure on Australia – and this is something they have been building towards since their defeat to India in the semi-finals of the 2017 edition. They bounced back with consecutive ICC Women’s T20 World Cup wins and are now on a quest to hold both trophies at the same time.
“We’re preparing for their best and their best is very dangerous,” was how Australia Meg Lanning put the challenge of facing West Indies.
Lanning has well and truly led from the front, racking up the highest score of the group stage with 135 not out against South Africa.
She sits second in the overall run charts behind Laura Wolvaardt (the newly crowned world No 1) and her vice-captain Rachael Haynes is one position behind her.
Despite Australia’s dominance, they say they are a side still searching for a perfect game and were given a scare by newcomers Bangladesh in their final match of the league stages.
While the wickets have been evenly shared among Australia’s bowlers – spin trio Jess Jonassen, Ashleigh Gardner and Alana King all have eight – one West Indies player is topping all the charts.
Hayley Matthews has enjoyed a stellar tournament, scoring the first century of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 with 119 against New Zealand in the opening game, also taking two wickets.
She has continued to pile on the runs and sits 11th with 226, the most of any of the West Indies players, and she is out front as their best wicket-taker too.
Matthews is the only player in this ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup to have opened the batting and bowling and is thriving under the pressure, having taken 10 wickets including career-best figures of four for 15 against Bangladesh.
Group stage meeting
Australia won by seven wickets when the two sides met in the group stages, also in Wellington. A seven-wicket win came on the back of a sensational bowling effort by Aussies before they stumbled a bit in the run-case.
The West Indies were bundled out for 131 as Ellyse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner took three wickets each, with captain Stafanie Taylor’s fifty the bright spot of the innings for the West Indies.
Two early wickets brought the Windies back into the game before a masterful 83 not out from Rachael Haynes steered the undefeated Australia home for their fourth win from four matches.
It was a match that Lanning looked back at during the press conference as one where they were tested by the bowling unit of West Indies. Indeed, had a couple of half-chances on the field were taken early on, Australia could have been in strife but West Indies’ were once again left to rue their batting. It will remain the area of concern for the semi-finals as well, as Taylor and co would need to step up collectively big time.
Scores in brief
Australia beat West Indies at Basin Reserve, Wellington by seven wickets
West Indies 131 all out, 45.5 overs (Stafanie Taylor 50,; Ellyse Perry 3/22, Ashleigh Gardner 3/25)
Australia 132/3, 30.2 overs (Rachael Haynes 83 not out, Beth Mooney 28 not out)
Player of the Match: Ellyse Perry (Australia)
Stats to know
- Australia take on West Indies in their eighth head-to-head ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup match. Australia have the historical edge winning six of those seven contests, their latest being a seven-wicket triumph in the group stage of this edition.
- They have played only seven ODIs between them, excluding the World Cups. Australia are unbeaten, winning all seven encounters. They last played a bilateral series in 2019 at Antigua, and it was won by Australia 3-0.
- Australia have only missed two of the nine finals at ICC Women’s World Cups. They enter this game in serious form, winning all their seven group stage games. Back on a 10-match ODI winning streak, Australia have lost only one of the 37 One Day Internationals they have played since 2018.
- Meanwhile, West Indies come into this game with three wins, three losses and a no result (washed out vs South Africa). If West Indies win here, it will only be the second time they would be entering the finals of ICC Women’s World Cups.
Key players
- Meg Lanning comes into this game as the second highest run-scorer of this tournament (358 runs). She is also the leading run-scorer for Australia against West Indies in the format’s history. She has scored a total of 558 runs in her 10 innings against this opposition at an outstanding average of 69.75, including three 50s and two 100s.
- Hayley Matthews has been the best player for West Indies in this tournament so far. She is their leading wicket-taker with 10 wickets, including her ODI career best bowling performance of 4/15 against Bangladesh. She has also scored 226 runs in her six outings with the bat, including her ODI career best score of 119 against the hosts, New Zealand in their opening encounter.
Pre-match buzz
Meg Lanning, Aus captain
On preparing for an inconsistent side like West Indies:
We’re preparing for their best and their best is very dangerous. And they’ve got a number of world-class players who can take the game away from you very quickly. So that’s the way that we’re looking at it. We’re expecting them to come out there and play well. Not only have they got some incredible batters, but their bowling lineup is dangerous as well. Connell has been bowling extremely well up front, Hayley Matthews has shown with the new ball that she can certainly play a role. So as a group, we’ve been very focused on preparing for their best play and their best game. And, we know and understand that we’re going to have to be prepared to take some pressure from them and take a bit of heat and then push back when we need to. So it’s an exciting opportunity. And I know everyone’s just looking forward to getting out there.
On knowing the conditions in Wellington and learnings from facing WI earlier
We do know the venue quite well. Which I guess is a good thing. Yeah, the wind obviously plays a big part in both sort of batting and bowling in terms of bowlers, which end they’re coming from and batting, just understanding where the areas are to hit the ball. So, we feel like we’ve got some really good knowledge there. And even in the wicket as well, it’s a fresh wicket tomorrow. So we’ve played on a few of those over the tournament as well.
So we feel like we’ve got a good handle on what the conditions might be if we bat first or bowl first. So that’s a good thing. But as I said before, it’s still about trying to find those good areas or setting up the platform with the bat to make sure that we’re exploiting those conditions and making the most of them. So. Yeah. And in terms of the West Indies, yeah, we’ve looked back at the game that we played against them and them throughout the tournament as well. So yeah, as I said, they’ve got a very strong batting lineup with some real game breakers who can take the game away from you pretty quick.
But it’s - on the other hand, I think their bowling lineups been extremely good as well and under pressure they’ve performed and been able to hold their nerve in some tight situations. So we’ve had a good look at them. We feel like we had a good game plan. And we’re also very clear on what we want to do. So now it’s just about going out there and executing it. And we’re excited to do that.
Stafanie Taylor, WI captain
Looking back at the last two years journey since the T20 World Cup
We’ve had some changes to our team. We have a new coaching staff. I believe that the work they have been doing with us has changed the way we go about our game. Some of ours’ game is changed because when you have - when we have those coaches who give us some insight on how we are playing versus how we should play. I feel like that kind of flicked the switch on us. This would be a second time being in a semifinal. And yeah, we want to relish the moment and go there and play hard cricket.
I think we’ve come a long way. Probably it does not show so much with the scoresheet. But I feel like we have come a long way. Looking back on the series that we’ve played and as I said, like the coaching staff would have been, those persons who contributed so much to us as players and to where we at. I thought we had a really good start to the tournament, and I hope that that’s something that we can use, to get us through in this backend.
On preparing for Australia
I might see myself bowling probably a bit more tomorrow. Yeah, we’ve been here for some time now. And been in the nets and getting used to the conditions. So, that should help us in how we play tomorrow. Seeing that Australia has been here probably more often than we have, but we just have to take it as it comes. Tomorrow – we are prepared for tomorrow like a final and yeah, hopefully we are were the one who is on top.
With inputs from ICC Business Corporation FZ LLC 2020, Sportradar and ESPNCricinfo Statsguru. All statistics mentioned for women’s One Day Internationals unless otherwise stated.
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