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Pressure squarely on Stars' batters: Mott

Coach says Australia's top order must show true colours in Thursday night's Sri Lanka clash

Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars coach Matthew Mott says the pressure is well and truly on his batting group as they head into their final two World T20 matches.

Mott said his team was “hurting” after their six-wicket defeat to New Zealand on Monday, as he called for an improved performance in their upcoming games against Sri Lanka and Ireland, with a spot in the semi-finals on the line.

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"We were incredibly disappointed," Mott told cricket.com.au after the White Ferns thrashing. "We were certainly hurting a lot as a team last night.

"Everyone was really disappointed with that performance – it wasn't what the Southern Stars are used to.

"I thought everyone prepared really well and everyone was in a good mindset after a tough win over South Africa and I thought all the signs were pointing to a good performance, but to be four for four in the Powerplay, it all went pretty pear-shared at the top."

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Australia crumbled to 4-4 in the fourth over against New Zealand in Nagpur, continuing a trend of poor starts with the bat. 

They were in a similar position in their first match against South Africa at 3-9, before Alex Blackwell and Meg Lanning steered their team to victory.

Now, the Southern Stars need convincing victories over Sri Lanka and Ireland to be assured of a spot in the semi-finals.

"It's about our top order in particularly standing up and executing what we've talked about," Mott continued.

"So there's a lot of pressure on the top four or five batters now to really lay the foundation to set that 130-plus score that we need.

"There's certainly not a lack of talent there. It's more confidence at the moment and our confidence is down after (the loss).

"We've got to bounce back pretty quickly and come back and play better cricket."

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The squad arrived in Delhi on Tuesday ahead of their clash with Sri Lanka on Thursday and Mott said the quick turnaround could work in their favour.

"The tournament is almost in fast forward now so there's not a lot of time to lick our wounds," he added. "We'll debrief and get this out of our system and prepare for Sri Lanka.

"Now they're all must-win games that puts that extra edge into everything we do."

Mott said there were still positives to take from the win, namely the way Ellyse Perry and Jess Jonassen fought back with a 52-run partnership to help the Southern Stars reach 8-103.

"It wasn't great bowling, there were a few ordinary balls we got out to and the (Lanning) run-out. Pretty much everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong in the first six overs," he said.

"So the one positive was we fought it out and put a score on the board which, if everything went to plan, we were a chance to defend."

Mott also didn't rule out another appearance by Erin Osborne at No.3. The off-spinner came in ahead of Lanning in a tactical ploy to make the most of her clean, hard-hitting batting, but it backfired when Lanning was run out before Osborne was dismissed for a duck.

"Anyone who's been around the squad knows (Osborne's) one of the cleaner hitters we have at the moment," he explained.

"We thought if we lost a wicket in the first three or four overs, we'd have someone prepared to go hard at New Zealand's bowling and who'd allow Meg Lanning to bat how Meg Lanning bats, rather than having to go too hard, too early.

"It backfired yesterday, but that's how it works – you try things and sometimes they don’t come off.

"We'll discuss whether it's an opportunity to take forward but it's a possibility."

Incredibly, Australia have never played Sri Lanka in a T20, while the most recent of their three ODI clashes was in 2013.

"We'll have a really good look at them and how they play in the next 24 hours, but to be honest (improvement) has got to come from within," Mott said.