Revealed: Ellyse Perry's Message To Her Team Before Women's T20I World Cup Final
Published - 23 Mar 2020, 08:14 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:04 AM
Australian Women’s team coach Matthew Mott in a recent interview revealed how Ellyse Perry’s words turned around his team’s fortunes, at the ICC Women’s T20I World Cup at home. The hosts were pre-tournament favourites, having won the title a record number of times. Australia got off to the worst possible start though losing their first match to India and pretty much playing a knockout fixture since then.
The team couldn’t afford to drop any more points, as they would have been knocked out of the group.
The home side, on the brink of elimination, went on to win the World Cup spectacularly, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on International Women’s day.
Australia defeated India in the final by 85 runs, but wouldn’t have been possible had Perry not motivated her team ahead of their semifinal clash.
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Matthew Mott reveals how Ellyse Perry motivated the Australian Women’s team:
While being ruled out of the contest through injury herself, Perry decided to give a pre-match pep-talk to lift his teams’ spirits ahead of of the all-important World Cup semifinal clash.
“Players admitted ‘I’m nervous, I haven’t been playing like I normally play, I should be doing this, I should be doing that’. Ellyse Perry was at that meeting because she goes in both meetings as an allrounder. She says ‘to be honest, we just need to make sure we’ve got soul in this group,” Mott was quoted as saying by ESPN CricInfo.
He continued, “I think if you look back to us in the first two games compared to the last few, you definitely saw a greater appreciation of a partnership, and I reckon that was pivotal.”
The Aussie side would put up a stellar performance in the semifinal, and the final, to win their fifth Women’s T20I World Cup title.
They indeed looked a completely changed unit from the earlier round of matches at the tournament.
