Why Australian women’s cricket team is such a juggernaut: Ash Gardner (115 off 83) who took them to 326 after being 113/4 vs NZ, explains

Ashleigh Gardner came in at No 6, and hit 115 off 83, striking at 138.55, with 16 fours and a six. Sophie Devine’s run-a-ball 112 was not enough to overhaul that score for the New Zealanders.

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Gardner is a singularly talented cricketer, and typifies the Aussie champion character of shining even amongst other stars. Her game sense came in handy as she resurrected the Aussie score in their opening World Cup game.

When asked if it was a challenge to recover from the loss of early wickets by the 19th over (they were 128/5 after Money went for 12 off 21), 28-year-old all-rounder Gardner, showed her ability to accelerate or accumulate as the situation demanded.

“You probably can’t afford to think about stuff (like losing wickets). If you look at our lineup we have so much confidence and clarity over what our role is and for me batting in middle order, sometimes we get to 250 and I get to tee off,” she said in the post match conference. “But what happened today 4/120 when I went in….There’s both ends of spectrum. For me that means consuming if I need to. That means hitting the boundary as hard, run very hard with my partner. There’s really clearing my thinking what I would do today. Where I want to score. I was just proactive looking at options. If I go into my shell that’s when I won’t bat the best. So I stick to my strengths, took scoreboard out of it,” she explained.

She highlighted how a clear thinking mind helped her not allow the double paced nature of the Indore wicket, to get the better of her. “I knew we would need around 320. It was around 8 overs to go, I told (No 9) Kim Garth we need ideally 310, 320 minimum. Just because once you got set, you can really flourish. Pace of the wicket really helped us. I think when people got into trouble early it was because it was two paced at time. They were just second guessing themselves rather than clarity in shot decisions. For me it was being able to do that – bring clear in the mind. When I’m not thinking too much, that’s when I play my best inning,” the articulate match winner explained.

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Gardner was also glad for teammate Sophie Molineux who ended with 3/25 including snaring Suzie Bates for 0 off 9. “She’s one of the hardest workers I know. Obviously she’s had a really bad streak of injuries. And to see her resilience is a testament to her character as a person, her willingness to push herself to the extent, to push herself back into the side. She’s put in countless hours off the field, trying to get her body in the best place,” she said.

Gardner said she was aware that the other Sophie, Kiwi Devine, had been capable of ruining the Aussie start, but Aussies had a plan. “Scoreboard said they needed to go at 10 or 11. Someone like Sophie was still out there so there’s definitely a chance. I guess we tried to hold the other end or try take some wickets to take her off strike so we were able to do. She capitalised on bad bowling. But to have someone like her out there with 15 overs to go was still a damaging prospect. Going forward if we come up against another side where someone gets going we have plans to get her off strike or get her early,” Gardner explained.

A large part of what makes the Aussies so formidable is that they bat deep. And their all rounders are genuinely capable with the bat. “Best thing about this side is we bat all the way down and we had spoken about if there were nerves…. But I have confidence in our lower order that they can do the job. If you look at a Kim Garth today she’s certainly not a No 9. She has an amazing technique and she can score all around the ground. Conversation with them was playing your strokes, don’t go into a shell. Because that would naturally put pressure on me. She took pressure off me straight away. To bat with lower order was actually really fun. Kim’s 40 odd runs (38 off 37) was the difference in the end. That pushed us beyond 300 run mark,” Gardner said.

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Gardner did get picked for runs when NZ batted though, going for 7.83 (47 off 6 overs). “Sometimes it’s just not your day with both skills. I felt like it’s just not my day with the ball. But when you bowling on 90, there’s no margin for error. It’s probably going back to see what I’m doing wrong and see if I’m in that position again, to have those plans. And execute as well,” she stressed, though quick Darcie Brown is one that opponents that will be target in coming days, having gone for 52 off 4 overs, pointing to a fast bowling weak link.

The No 6 was asked if lower and middle orders batting teams out of trouble would be an early trend, given India too needed their all rounders to pull them out of trouble against Sri Lanka. But Gardner said it wasn’t quite.

“I wouldn’t call it a trend. If you look at the way we took the powerplay on. Phoebe Litchfield got us off to a very quick start (45 off 31). That’s a trend we want to set. Take the powerplay on. And bowl really well through powerplay. Capitalise on it,” she asserted. It was something the Aussies pulled off well in the series against India. “Reflecting back on India series, and how that powerplay set up the game, we have that method going forward. We play this fearless brand of cricket. We have certain KPAs (key performance areas?) as a team. And we really want to win that period of the game. That sets up the momentum for the rest of the game. Our top order needs to be doing their best to spend most amount of time out there. But if things don’t go the way we planned we can have confidence in lower order to do as we need,” she said of their depth in the batting order.

Travelling to Colombo to play Sri Lanka poses a separate set of challenges. “What this team really knows well is to adapt. We play in a lot of different places around the world. We need to adapt. In the first practice session we will get a gist of what’s gonna happen in the middle. But we adapt. We’ve got some smart cricketers within our side. And we make sure we adapt to different challenges thrown at us. Sri Lanka will throw a different challenge at us. Obviously there’s gonna be lot of spin, so there’s no denying that. We are well equipped, we have planned well. We pride ourselves on showing all the hard work we have done,” Gardner added

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“Stay in the present. One game at a time,” is their eternal timeless, if somewhat cliched, mantra.

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