Winning a fourth-straight World Cup might have to be done in “pretty ugly” fashion, according to Australian batting star Beth Mooney, as slow wickets keep producing low scores with all matches played across just two venues in the United Arab Emirates. Just three batters from the 10 teams, and no Australians, have passed 50 through the opening week of games, and Mooney, her team’s leading run-scorer, conceded it was going to be “a bit of a hard slog” as the tournament went on. Australia has recorded totals of 8-148, batting first in Wednesday morning’s win against New Zealand, and 4-94, batting second, in the first-up win over Sri Lanka, both games played in Sharjah.
For their third game against Pakistan on the weekend, the defending champions will move to Dubai, where New Zealand’s score of 160 against India remains an outlier in a tournament where the average score is just 101 runs. “Very different to conditions back home and a bit of a hard slog at times with the slow outfield and the big boundaries and the slow wicket itself,” Mooney said after making 40 off 32 balls with just two boundaries in the win over the Kiwis. “We kind of known throughout this tournament we’re going to have to dig pretty deep with the bat and try and find a way to score runs.
“Sometimes that’s going to look pretty ugly and sometimes it’s going to be OK, but I think if we just find a way to make it work, that will hold us in good stead.” The Australians managed 13 fours.