Confidence, opportunity: How Gardner unlocked her hot streak

Ashleigh Gardner says confidence has been key to her career-best streak with the bat in ODIs – and Australia's next World Cup opponent has played no small part in her success. 

Gardner's unbeaten 104 against England in Indore on Wednesday night was her third century in her last seven one-day international innings.

It continued a hot streak that started against India in Perth last December, when she hit a half-century, before following up with a then-career-best 74 from 62 deliveries a fortnight later in Wellington.

In Hobart in January, when Gardner struck her first hundred in any international format in the third Ashes ODI, becoming the first woman to score a century batting at No.6 in an ODI.

She followed up with 115 against New Zealand in Australia's World Cup opener earlier this month, and was also clutch in her run-a-ball 45 against Australia's world record chase of 330 against India.

In all, Gardner is averaging 51.50 from 14 innings at a strike rate of 107.85 batting at No.6 in ODIs across the last 12 months.

To put her performances – and Australia's batting depth – in context, she's now made more hundreds batting at No.6 than every other 6-11 batter in women's ODI history combined, with West Indies' Shemaine Campbelle (105 v Sri Lanka at No.7 in 2013) and South Africa's Annerie Dercksen (104 v Sri Lanka at No.7 in 2025) the only others to achieve the feat.

"Confidence is a really massive one - for me, training in the nets can only do so much," Gardner said in Indore on Friday.

"I feel like I've been hitting the ball probably as well as I have in my career and I'm just trying to really harness that.

"It's just having a really simple game plan with the bat, trying to hit the sweepers hard in early my innings, understanding who my threats will be as an individual – there's always going to be one or two throughout each bowling attack – and being able to nullify that, or to try counter punch against those players as well.

"It's just trying to be really confident in what that looks like when I walk out to bat and just be really simple in my approach ... and ultimately for me, it's just trying to put my team in a winning position and if that comes with those accolades, fantastic."

While Australia have shuffled the make-up of their middle-order around her, with Annabel Sutherland elevated to No.5 late last year and Tahlia McGrath finding a new home at No.7, Gardner has been cemented in the No.6 position since the start of 2023.

It is a role that requires the 28-year-old to be flexible, knowing she could be called upon to provide a rescue mission – as happened in each of her century-scoring innings – or to play a finishing role.

"It's always a really tricky one, (that potential) always been there, but I haven't been able to build those innings," Gardner said.

"Sometimes you reach those 30s and 40s, and then you never actually get to kick on ... so for me, it's if I get to 50 and there's still lots of time left in the game, making sure that I can keep pushing on.

"I haven't changed the way that I've gone about my cricket over my international career, it's just seeing my strengths and when to implement them, rather than just going in all guns blazing, all at once.

"Making sure that I can go through my gears, that's probably been the biggest difference, knowing that I don't have to start in gear five, I can actually still just make my way into my innings, and then being able to fluctuate through those gears as well.

"That's probably been the biggest thing, is just how to build in innings."

In part, Gardner has been afforded the opportunity to play a larger role with the bat in Australia's ODI XI because of their 'no ceilings' approach, which has been them bat more aggressively earlier in their innings as they target mammoth totals and back in their batting depth.

That approach was refined in the wake of Australia's shock T20 World Cup semi-final defeat to South Africa in Dubai last October, when their first-innings total of 5-134 proved nowhere near enough as the Proteas romped to a memorable win in 17.2 overs.

Australia will play South Africa for the first time since that loss on Saturday, and Gardner agreed that although the format was different, there would be a point to prove.

"I think the way that we've approached our game since the T20 World Cup semi-final loss has showcased what we've always been capable of doing," Gardner said.

"It's just being braver in the way that we go about it.

"Certainly (South Africa) will come in with a lot of confidence, they've won five games in a row now, so we certainly want to stall that going into the finals.

"If we do finish top of the table, we're coming up against a pretty formidable side in India, so there's certainly lots of obstacles to overcome to hopefully reach that final.

"But it all starts tomorrow ... we'll take a lot of confidence out of what we've done throughout this whole tournament.

"Different people have stood up at different times as well, which I think is the most pleasing thing about this side, it's not always one or two people, it's genuinely the whole XI who get the opportunity to walk out into that field."

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

Australia's group stage matches

October 1: Australia beat New Zealand by 89 runs

October 4: v Sri Lanka: Abandoned without a ball bowled

October 8: Australia beat Pakistan by 107 runs

October 12: Australia beat India by 3 wickets

October 16: Australia beat Bangladesh by 10 wickets

October 22: Australia beat England by 6 wickets

October 25: v South Africa, Holkar Stadium, Indore, 8:30pm AEDT

Finals

Semi-final 1: Guwahati, October 29, 8:30pm AEDT

Semi-final 2: Mumbai, October 30, 8:30pm AEDT

Final: Mumbai, November 2, 8:30pm AEDT

All matches to be broadcast exclusively live and free on Prime Video.