Australian all-rounder, Ellyse Perry is confident that their side will defend the title

Champions Trophy has reached the knockout stage and will call it a day on 18th June when two Asian teams will clash for the title. However, the joy for the fans doesn’t end here as ICC Women’s World Cup is round the corner and is all set to get underway in England later this month.

A total of eight nations will be participating in this tournament with the host being England. All teams are working regressively with full fortitude to have their hand on the trophy. Australian men were ousted from the tournament by the hosts in ICC Champions Trophy but on the other side, Australia’s Women look all set to defend their title.

Confabulation with Ellyse Perry

Ellyse Perry, Australian all-rounder made her intentions clear and wishes to defend the title. She said that the team needs to have the right temperament in the death overs, in order to finish well and post a good total on board. In the absence of the captain, Meg Lanning, she batted at no. 3 and struck a century against New Zealand at Southampton on Wednesday in the warm-up game. She showed her concerns as the lower middle order didn’t fire at all.

“It was really great to put on those partnerships with Bolts [Nicole Bolton] at the start and then Elyse Villani as well. It was just disappointing for me personally but also the lower order, we just fell off again. We were set up to score over 300 and we didn’t get there. That’s something to work on but it was nice to get that time in the middle,” Perry said.

“In the next couple days it’ll be a real focus for us in training, just making the right decisions on balls to hit and where to score our runs. We don’t have the right tempo at the moment, we’re either going for big shots or defending, I think there needs to be a little more in between where we pick gaps and not letting bowlers settle and putting pressure on ourselves,” she added.

Perry’s hundred against their neighbours geographically helped them to clinch a comfortable victory.

“Everyone got a good chance out in the middle, which is probably what we’ve needed after a really good prep back home and not as much official games. A bit of rust, but that’s ok, we’ve got a bit of time before the first proper match,” the 26-year-old said.

“There were lots of positives with both bat and ball but probably just lacking that polish, probably bowled too many four-balls, and a few loose shots and not really finishing our innings off, which was quite disappointing, but they’re solid opposition and it was good to play some good cricket in patches,” she concluded.

Australia will play South Africa and Pakistan in the other practice game before the much important encounter against West Indies in the tournament opener on 26th June at Taunton.