Aussies learn lessons in patience

Australia skipper Meg Lanning says her team will take a valuable lesson in patience from Tuesday’s World T20 warm-up match against South Africa, as they search for the key to scoring at Guyana’s Providence Stadium.

Choosing to bat first, a faltering start to the Australian innings saw them 4-38 after 10.1 overs, struggling to make any headway against the Proteas pace attack.

But Lanning’s patience paid off and she was able to reap the benefits in the second half of the innings, powering her way to 65 not out from 51 balls, as she and deputy Rachael Haynes added 92 runs from the final 59 deliveries to lift their team to 4-130.

Having never played in Guyana before, it was a vital chance for Lanning and her team to size up the conditions ahead of their World T20 opener against Pakistan on Friday.

“It was nice to get used to the conditions and have a look at what we’ll be dealing with in the real games,” Lanning said after Australia wrapped up a 46-run win.

“We’ve got to make sure we’re adapting to what we come up against and there were some pretty challenging times there with the bat.

“So I think it was really good for us just to work out what we need to do for the game on Friday against Pakistan.

“I think it was really important that we (Lanning and Haynes) got going there, I think we picked our bowlers really nicely.

“Our batting line-up is really strong and even if we do lose early wickets we’ve got the people to come in and do the job.”

Haynes, as she’s done routinely in the last two months, managed to make scoring look simple when she joined Lanning at the crease, posting a 27-ball 29 not out.

“I thought Rach fid a really great job, she came in again and hit some really strong shots down the ground to her strengths, and showed it was possible to take the bowlers on and score boundaries,” Lanning said.

After Australia’s big-hitting top-order failed to fire, Lanning said they’d have learned important lessons about how to handle the conditions at Providence Stadium, suggesting they may need to initially ignore their attacking instincts.

“Initially it was really skiddy,” she said. “The South Africa bowlers are generally like that anyway, so the conditions probably helped that.

“Anything on the stumps you had to be really strong in your defence and once you got width could go a little harder.

“But you had to be willing to be patient probably more so than in a normal T20 game, so I think overall for our team it was a really good learning curve for what we need to do on Friday.

“(Pakistan) could be really effective on this wicket, they do target the stumps a lot and bowl that skiddy stuff as well, so they’re a dangerous team.”

Australia will have two final training sessions before they play Pakistan in their World T20 opener on Friday at 4pm local time (Saturday 7am AEDT).

Fox Sports will broadcast every match of the Women’s World T20, while the Nine Network will televise Australia’s matches.

2018 ICC Women's World T20  

Australia squad: Meg Lanning (c), Rachael Haynes (vc), Nicole Bolton, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Alyssa Healy (wk), Jess Jonassen, Delissa Kimmince, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Elyse Villani, Tayla Vlaeminck, Georgia Wareham

November 9: Australia v Pakistan, Province Stadium, Guyana

November 11: Australia v Ireland, Province Stadium

November 13: Australia v New Zealand, Province Stadium

November 17: Australia v India, Province Stadium

November 22: Semi-finals, Sir Vivian Richards Ground, Antigua

November 24: Final, Sir Vivian Richards Ground