Record-setting Gardner soaks up pressure to sparkle

01 Oct 2025 Laura Jolly, at Holkar Stadium, Indore

Known for short-form blazing cameos, Ashleigh Gardner underlined her evolution with another gutsy knock when Australia needed it most

If anyone held doubts that Ashleigh Gardner thrives under pressure, her match-winning efforts at Holkar Stadium on Wednesday evening would have put them firmly to rest.

The 28-year-old allrounder was a vision of calm and control as she steered Australia out of trouble in their World Cup tournament opener against New Zealand, producing a career-best 115 from 83 balls.

Gardner's career-best hundred powers Aussies to World Cup win

In the process she became the first Aboriginal player to hit an ODI World Cup hundred for Australia, and the first player from any country to reach the milestone batting at No.6 or lower.

"You probably can't afford to think (about nerves)" Gardner said post-match of her approach to difficult situations, with Australia slipping to 5-128 shortly after her arrival at the crease.

"I think if I look at our line-up, we have so much confidence and clarity of what everyone's role is.

"For me, batting in the middle-order, sometimes I'll go in when we're 250 and I get to tee off.

"But then sometimes it's what happened today …. what that looks like for me is just trying to hit the boundary riders hard, run really hard with my partner, and just be really clear in my thinking.

"That's what I was able to do today, I was clear in where I wanted to score, and I was just really proactive with taking positive options, because if I go into my shell, that's probably when I won't bat the best.

"It's sticking to my strengths. Yes, the scoreboard was saying (Australia were in trouble), but I was trying to take that out of it."

When Gardner was plucked from the WBBL back in 2017 and handed an Australian debut, it was largely due to her swashbuckling 20-over batting.

Over the years since, she has evolved into one of the world's best finger spinners, and more recently that facet of her game has become her more dominant skill, ensuring her name is one of the first on any Australian team sheet, while floating up and down the batting order across white-ball formats.

Her potential with the bat has always been there, but was largely confined to fast and fiery cameos. Yet across the past 10 months, Gardner has stepped it up a level.

Last December, she struck a then-career-best 74 in a one-dayer against New Zealand, where she helped Australia from a precarious 4-127 to 290.

Then, in January, came the major breakthrough: a maiden ODI century against England during the multi-format Ashes.

In that game at Bellerive Oval, Australia were floundering at 4-59 when Gardner came to the rescue, scoring her first international hundred in any format to steer her team to a total of 8-308.

Gardner leads Aussie fightback with maiden ODI ton

That innings was bettered by Gardner's efforts on Wednesday in Indore: a knock that came under the pressure of a World Cup, in a game where not only had Australia never previously played, but a ground that had never hosted a women's international match.

"I think she's just continuing to mature as a cricketer with both bat and ball," Australia captain Alyssa Healy said.

"It's really impressive to watch. We back our depth in this side, and the fact that our middle-order can come out and make hundreds when we're in strife is a real asset.

"I'm really proud of Ashleigh, she had a great day, and hopefully she can just enjoy this moment."

2025 Women's ODI World Cup

Australia squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Heather Graham, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham