Captain Alyssa Healy insists Ashleigh Gardner’s World Cup century presents a blueprint for Australia’s batters as they look to balance aggression with clever cricket in unfamiliar conditions.
Garder’s 83-ball 115 pulled Australia out of a tricky position against New Zealand on Wednesday evening, and despite coming to the middle with her team 4-113, which quickly became of 5-128, the allrounder did not go into her shell, reaching her half-century in 43 balls and her ton off 77.
While those around her fell to a series of rash lofted shots looking to clear the infield, Gardner found the ideal balance.
She got off the mark with a boundary, then kept the scoreboard ticking over as she rotated the strike with Tahlia McGrath – ensuring Australia’s run rate never dipped below six – while still punishing the bad balls, negating the need for undue risk before she later accelerated as Australia’s total moved closer to 300.
“Super mature from her,” Healy said of Gardner following Wednesday’s 89-run win over the White Ferns. “We want to play a really aggressive, attacking brand of cricket.
“She did just that, but she did it really smartly, so she probably showed the rest of the top-order how to do it a little bit.
“To get us up to a total we should definitely defend I think was just a super mature innings.”
Australia have pledged to play an attacking brand of cricket throughout this World Cup, keen to test the boundaries of their deep batting line-up while navigating the unfamiliar conditions at a range of venues they’ve never played at.
That depth paid off against New Zealand, when Kim Garth, who came out at No.9 after being initially listed at No.10, scored 38 and shared a crucial 69-run stand with Gardner that allowed her teammate to reach her second one-day century.
But ideally, Healy said, drawing on that depth would not be required too frequently throughout this tournament.
“It’s a balance, I think that’s probably the best way to sum it up,” Healy said. “I mean, we still made over 300 and we were struggling through the middle periods there.
“It doesn’t take much for one of our middle-order to make a hundred at the moment, which is really cool.
“I think as a batting group, we will just reflect on some of our dismissals, and potentially where we can be just a little bit more precise in what we’re doing to make sure we’re pushing (totals of) 350 and beyond on wickets like this, to make it challenging in a run chase.
“But at the end of the day, there were no real wrong options, maybe just not as precise as what we’d like.”
The next test of Australia’s approach will come not only at a different venue, but in a different country altogether.
The Australian squad flew from Indore to the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo on Thursday, where they will play the co-hosts on their home turf on Saturday, before their round game against Pakistan – first-up losers to Bangladesh – who are using R Premadasa Stadium as their neutral ground throughout the tournament.
Australia last played a T20 in Colombo in 2016, and expect the conditions to be more spin-friendly.
Weather could also be a factor, with rain severely interrupting the series of warm-up games played in the Sri Lankan capital last week.
“I think what this team does really well is adapt,” Gardner said on Wednesday. “We play in a lot of different places around the world, and you need to adapt really quickly.
“We fly to Colombo and then we have one practice session to get the gist of what’s going to happen out there in the middle.
“We’ve got some really smart cricketers within our side, whether that’s with bat or ball, making sure that we can adapt to the different challenges that are thrown at us.
“Sri Lanka I think is going to throw some different challenges at us – there’s going to be a lot of spin, there’s no denying that.
“So, making sure that we’re well-equipped, we’ve planned well – that’s something that we can really pride ourselves on, making sure we’ve done all the hard work before we get out there.”
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, R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 7:30pm AEST
October 8: v Pakistan, R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 8:30pm AEDT
October 12: v India, ACA-VDCA Stadium Visakhapatnam, 8:30pm AEDT
October 16: v Bangladesh, ACA-VDCA Stadium Visakhapatnam, 8:30pm AEDT
October 22: v England, Holkar Stadium, Indore, 8:30pm AEDT
October 25: v South Africa, Holkar Stadium, Indore, 8:30pm AEDT
Finals
Semi-final 1: Guwahati or Colombo*, October 29, 8:30pm AEDT
Semi-final 2: Mumbai, October 30, 8:30pm AEDT
Final: Mumbai or Colombo*, November 2, 8:30pm AEDT
All matches to be broadcast exclusively live and free on Prime Video.
* All games involving Pakistan to be played in Colombo, including the semi-final and final if they qualify
