Aussies prepared for Pakistan's spin threats

Beth Mooney has revealed the various ways in which Australia's top six have prepared for an unfamiliar opponent, as they seek their second win of the World Cup against Pakistan on Tuesday.

Australia have not met Pakistan in a one-dayer since October 2018 and will quickly need to adapt to their spin-heavy opponents on a Bay Oval pitch that will be in use for the third time in five days.

Pakistan suffered a 107-run loss to India at the same ground on Sunday but at one point had their heavily-favoured opponents in deep trouble at 6-114, before a rear guard effort from lower-order batters Sneh Rana and Pooja Vastrakar helped India to a respectable 7-244.

Australia No.5 Beth Mooney was a watchful observer during that innings and believes she will take key lessons into Tuesday's game.

"I thought Pakistan were outstanding with the ball yesterday," Mooney said on Monday.

"Their spinners did an outstanding job through that period when Deepti Sharma and Smriti Mandhana had that (92-run) partnership, they broke that with the spinners through the middle and looked like they had the squeeze quite nicely on India.

"Something we pride ourselves on as a batting group is making sure we're always moving the game forward and accessing different areas of the ground to get the fields that we want, so seeing (how Pakistan bowled) in the game yesterday will be really important for us heading into tomorrow."

Australia's top six spent an extended period in the Bay Oval nets facing throwdowns during their training session on Monday, with coaches aiming to replicate the slower spin produced by Pakistan's Nida Dar, Anam Amin and Nashra Sandhu.

It was the slower bowlers who had the most success against Australia's strong batting line-up in Malaysia in 2018; while the chief destroyer Sana Mir has since retired and will instead occupy a seat in the commentary box on Tuesday, left-armers Amin and Sandhu took four wickets apiece in that three-game ODI series.

"Their spinners bowl quite differently to ours in terms of pace through the air," Mooney explained.

"They bowl a lot of seam-up arm balls as well … we've had a session today specifically on that as a top six and hopefully we can use that to our advantage tomorrow.

"So (we've been) working out exactly how we're going to set ourselves up when that happens.

"The beauty of our batting line-up is we're all quite different in where we hit the ball and access the areas.

"It was really nice just to do something a little bit different, and make it quite tailored to what we're going to come up against tomorrow."

The other piece of intel Australia will draw on is their own experience at Bay Oval against New Zealand 12 months ago.

That three-game Rose Bowl ODI series was played entirely at the Tauranga venue, with the one pitch used for all three matches.

"When we got to the third game, it had slowed up quite a lot," Mooney said. "That intel will become really handy for us as a batting unit and bowling unit.

"It's a different kind of challenge, but I think what we probably have focused on a little bit more on last few months is worrying about what we can control and how we want to go about our game.

"So hopefully we can do that again tomorrow and adjust where we have to do and adapt to it."

Pakistan meanwhile will draw on the knowledge of vice-captain Dar, the sole player within their ranks who has appeared in the Weber WBBL, and who will be able to provide first-hand insight into the Australian squad.

Image Id: 3522D84D259840169BDCC6D790AA860E Image Caption: Nida Dar celebrates one of her 13 wickets for the Sydney Thunder in WBBL|05 // Getty

"It was a very good learning (experience) in the Big Bash. I learned a lot of game strategies, because the wickets are very different in Australia, and similar to New Zealand," Dar, who played alongside Rachael Haynes at Sydney Thunder in WBBL|05, said.

"Of course, (Haynes) knows me very, very well ... (but) I have my own plans for her."

ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2022

Australia squad: Meg Lanning (c), Rachael Haynes (vc), Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Grace Harris, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Amanda-Jade Wellington. Travelling reserves: Heather Graham, Georgia Redmayne

Australia's World Cup 2022 fixtures

Mar 5: Australia def England by 12 runs

Mar 8: v Pakistan, Bay Oval, Tauranga, 12pm AEDT

Mar 13: v New Zealand, Basin Reserve, Wellington, 8am AEDT

Mar 15: v West Indies, Basin Reserve, Wellington, 8am AEDT

Mar 19: v India, Eden Park, Auckland, 12pm AEDT

Mar 22: v South Africa, Basin Reserve, Wellington, 8am AEDT

Mar 25: v Bangladesh, Basin Reserve, Wellington, 8am AEDT

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL WORLD CUP SCHEDULE

Semi-finals

Mar 30: Basin Reserve, Wellington, 8am AEDT

Mar 31: Hagley Park Christchurch, 12pm AEDT

Final

Apr 3: Hagley Park Christchurch, 11am AEDT

All matches to be broadcast in Australia on Fox Cricket and Kayo Sports