Australia Women captain Meg Lanning was delighted after they continued their domination in the ongoing ICC Women World Cup 2022 as they won the 25th match of the tournament against Bangladesh by five wickets at the Basin Reserve, Wellington on Friday.
In fact, it wasn’t a cakewalk for Australia as they lost five wickets in the run-chase and they were tottering at 41-4 at one stage. Lanning won the toss and decided to bowl first but Bangladesh could only manage 136-5 in 43 overs after the seven overs were deducted due to rain.
Ash Gardner and Jess Jonassen scalped two wickets for Australia whereas Lata Mondal top-scored with 34 runs for Bangladesh.
On the other hand, Australia lost early wickets in the run-chase but Beth Mooney scored an unbeaten knock of 66 runs off just 75 balls to get her team over the line.
Meg Lanning said in the post-match presentation, “Certainly – the conditions – the hardest I’ve played in. I was freezing cold, I was fielding without a hat on which is a bit different. Today was about finding a way to get through and win, we had to fight. Bangladesh played extremely well and put us under pressure. It was a really positive performance in the end from Mooney and Sutherland to get us over the line. (The conversation with the umpires) It was just about how dark it was.”
She added, “They were bowling spin, so it was fine tonight but if Darcie Brown was bowling, it might have been hard to see. That’s the way the conditions were and I thought they did a good job to keep us out there. Just to be able to fight there with the bat and Sutherland – a young player to come and play under pressure and get us home was really important. We understand that heading into the semifinals, everything’s not going to go our way and we have fought back. So to be able to work our way through was very impressive and we’ll certainly take the win.”
Australia has been unbeaten thus far in the tournament and they would look to continue the same form in the knockout stages. The six-time champions will end as the table toppers of the points table after winning all their seven matches.
Australia will play the first semifinal on Wednesday at Basin Reserve, Wellington and their opponents are yet to b decided.
