ICC Women's World Cup 2022: We Discussed Our Last Tour Of Australia, We Have Done Well Against Them – Smriti Mandhana Ahead Of Australia Clash

Star Indian opener Smriti Mandhana, ahead of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 clash against Australia, said that the Indian team discussed about their last tour of Australia where they performed well and almost won the series and the players are drawing motivation from that performance.

In the 2021 series between India and Australia, the Indian team broke Australia’s 26-match winning streak but eventually lost the series by 1-2. Also, in 2017 India defeated Australia in the semi-final of the World Cup. Meanwhile, Mithali Raj-led India will lock horns with undefeated Australia on Saturday, March 19 at Eden Park.

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Ahead of the match, Smriti confirmed that the star batter Harmanpreet Kaur is “fit and available for tomorrow’s game.” She also said that the Indian players are highly motivated for the clash against Australia.

“Everyone knows what happened in 2017. More than that, we discussed our last tour of Australia. We have done well against them and we almost won the series. That’s the brand of cricket we want to play and that has been our motivation,” she said at a virtual media interaction ahead of Saturday’s fixture.

“The girls are really motivated and everyone is pumped to go and get 2 points on board, knowing the situation of the tournament and how important this match is. The team psychologist has also helped in this regard.”

“Definitely we couldn’t win the series. The second match also we almost won against them, so it would have been like a series win.”

It is a proud moment for all of us to be there for Jhulan di’s 200th match – Smriti Mandhana

While talking about veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami’s 200th ODI game, Smriti said that it is a proud moment for her to be part of Jhulan Goswami’s 200th match.

“It is a proud moment for all of us to be there for Jhulan di’s 200th match. She has been motivating us and also all the girls back home.”

“She [Rachel Hayneshas] been anchoring the innings for them. That’s why we’ll be looking to get her out early. She is a very experienced player and it will be an interesting battle,” she added.

Meanwhile, Australia’s coach Matthew Mott while talking about the clash against India said that they are not thinking about the matches that happened in past. He added that they have done a lot of research on India and labelled the team as a dangerous side.

“It’s a non-event internally, Literally, the last thing on our mind at the moment is what happened five years ago. India’s our only focus at the moment, we’ve done a lot of research on them. And we match up well against them. They’re a good cricket side, but it’s going to be a hell of a game tomorrow night,” Mott added.

“Noting that it is a good time to play India, I see them as an incredibly dangerous side. We are rolling with some confidence at the moment but as we always say, it’s this game in isolation and everything that we’re talking about at the moment is about how we can combat India.

“They’ve got one of the best new-ball bowling attacks in the world and we found that out last summer. So once again, we talked about negating that and that trying to build a base is very important,” he added.

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