Australia prepares for spin onslaught in T20 World Cup semi-final against India

Indian spin was too hard to handle for Australia’s Test team, but it will be a different story at the T20 World Cup in South Africa.

The all-conquering Australian T20 team will not be wavering from its “clear, clinical plans” to combat the looming Indian spin assault in Friday morning’s must-win World Cup semi-final.

As the impact of the Australian Test team’s deviation from batting plans against India was laid bare this week, the second innings collapse in Delhi described as “a car crash in slow motion”, the women have vowed to stay their course.

India is the only team that has beaten the Australians, going for a trifecta of T20 World Cup wins, in the past two years, and the teams have played each other enough to ensure the defending champs know what they are in for.

That’s spin, and more spin, on low, slow wickets in South Africa that make sticking to the plan even more important with a spot in the final at stake.

“I’m sure we’ll see the top order facing a lot of spin,” opener Beth Mooney said ahead of the clash.

“We‘re not expecting it to be easy by any means, whether it’s with a bat or the ball, but we certainly know the style of play they’ve come at us with in the past and they know ours pretty well, too.

Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy will open the batting for Australia. Picture: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

“We don’t take anyone in that Indian team lightly, we have to have clear, clinical plans.

“I think if we do all the right things sort of today at training, and tomorrow as well, hopefully we can come into that game feeling really confident.

“But as we know, everyone‘s starting from scratch, and no one’s got any points leading into that first semi, so we know we’ve got to be on our game from ball one.”

Mooney, the No.2-ranked batter in the world, has found her groove just in time too after starting the tournament with scores of zero and two.

An unbeaten half-century against Sri Lanka was followed by 20 against South Africa, her team’s fourth-straight win.

Mooney has found her groove. Picture: Marco Longari / AFP

Despite outside panic, Mooney said she never felt the walls closing in because having played 81 T20s for her country, she knows how “fickle” T20 can be.

“I think I’m a pretty grounded cricketer and T20 cricket is pretty fickle and if you think you are going well it usually bites you in the bum, and if you’re not going well and drag yourself around being miserable, it’s going to last a little bit longer than you want it to,” she said.

“Would I like to be scoring more runs? Absolutely. But that’s the nature of the game we play, you can do all the right things and not have luck.

“I don’t even think form is a thing in T20 cricket, it’s all about getting your plans right and sometimes it comes off and sometimes it doesn’t.

“You don’t score runs in a couple of games and it’s panic stations, but my mindset is we are all human and that’s just the way cricket goes sometimes.”

Originally published as Australia prepares for spin onslaught in T20 World Cup semi-final against India