NO CRACKS – Australia brush off injury woes with dominant win over Bangladesh

Having lost key players Phoebe Litchfield and Ash Gardner through injury, title favourites Australia showed off the depth of their squad with a brutal nine wicket win over Bangladesh.

Gethin Thurlow reports from Headingley.

Forced to replace two of the country and world’s greatest, the Australian squad had already put the game to bed by the end of the powerplay. Kicking off Headingley’s World Cup berth with a bang, Kim Garth dispatched Dilara Akter’s off-stump in the second over of the innings. And that set the tone for the next 18 overs.

A couple of LBW’s later and Bangladesh were 22-3 after six overs.

After an anxious morning for the Aussies, it was a nice calming start. Lose two of the best players in the world through injury? Not to worry – just replace them with two more. Like everything in cricket, this Australian team makes things look a lot easier than they should be.

Speaking of making things look easy: Ellyse Perry. In a shock to absolutely nobody, she came on in the eighth over and instantly took two wickets, including a beautiful diving catch at cover by Sophie Molineux.

Annabel Sutherland’s following over of just one conceded run and no wicket almost felt like a disappointment after Perry’s heroic/completely standard over.

As the bowling load continued to be shared around, Bangladesh put together a nice partnership of 32, even if they were still knocking it around at just under four an over. Captain Nigar Sultana Joty scored the biggest contribution of the innings with 27 from 47 balls, taking the score from a total embarrassment to to just a poor total of 77-8.

The question for Australia was emphatically when they were going to hit the target and how many wickets would they lose rather than if they would reach it.

Georgia Voll decided she fancied lunch a bit earlier than planned and got the power hitting going. With boundaries flowing down the other end, it was Beth Mooney’s turn to get involved. She was having issues with the straight drive however, with a first bouncing just shy of mid-off before the same shot dropped straight into the hands of Ritu Moni.

Ellyse Perry had no problem hitting to the fence and, in fact, it was her quick scoring that left Georgia Voll stranded on 45 not out at the other end, when the winning two were scored.

I don’t think she’ll mind since her team chased the score down in 9.3 overs, giving them a massive net run rate advantage, which could be crucial at the end of the group stage.

Ultimately, what Australia did for three hours, was eliminate any possible narratives around weakness and cracks slipping in after losing Phoebe Litchfield and Ashleigh Gardner for this game and possibly more. For three hours straight they dominated Bangladesh in every facet of the game, leaving no stone unturned in their quest for first place in their group, and reminded the world why they are the favourites.