Women’s T20 World Cup: Keep calm and control the pace

Meg Lanning, left, and Rachael Haynes take control against Sri Lanka at the WACA

We had lost three wickets inside four overs when Rach Haynes joined me at the crease.

It felt like everything was happening fast. Too fast. We hadn’t played with our usual control, presence or tempo against India in Sydney and now, at 3-10 chasing Sri Lanka’s 122 at the WACA, we were in danger of following the same rushed script.

“Let’s take the sting out of the game for a while,” I said to Rach when she arrived in the middle. “Take a few minutes. Calm everything down.”

So that’s what we did. We took a breath, put the big shots away and let things settle for a couple of overs. And before long it felt like a normal game of cricket again. It all felt familiar. We knew what to do. We’d done it many times before.

That conversation with Rach was a turning point in the match against Sri Lanka and, in hindsight, a microcosm of the last few weeks for the whole squad.

We’d talked for a long time as a group about how massive it would be to host a T20 World Cup — that there would be more attention, more discussion, more focus on us than we’d ever known before.

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But saying it and experiencing it are quite different things.

We couldn’t have known that a fortnight ago. We do know that now.

The build-up to the India game was next-level hectic. It seemed like every waking moment was occupied with functions and events and interviews and photo shoots in addition to the playing, training and travelling we’re well accustomed to.

Don’t get me wrong: this isn’t a complaint. The interest in our game at the moment is absolutely brilliant and something we’ve always wanted. But when you haven’t lived it before it does require some adjustment. It wasn’t until after the Sri Lanka game that we properly recognised that.

We had some discussions about what we had done well and not so well to that point.

There was a sense from everyone in the squad that something was slightly off. It wasn’t major. We were training and preparing well but we weren’t playing with our normal calmness and assuredness.

We talked about how we were feeling about the attention we were receiving and some of the critical commentary that was out there. Honesty is one of the great strengths of this group and we’ve become better at talking things through rather than letting them bottle up.

We recalibrated. We committed to focusing on the things we could control and letting go of the other stuff.

We zeroed in on our own performances rather than getting caught up in the external discussions about them. We talked about turning our big home crowd support into an advantage.

By the time of the Bangladesh game at Manuka Oval, things felt better.

On a personal level, I have learned a lot over the past couple of weeks.

Being drawn into a public discussion about Alyssa Healy’s form leading into the tournament was something I’d never experienced before. To us, critical analysis is a good thing because it tells you that people really care.

That said, when you’re not used to it, it can be a challenge. The way everyone — Midge in particular! — dealt with it is a real credit to them.

I’ve also never experienced a crowd like the one we played in front of at the Sydney Showgrounds. We could barely hear each other out in the field. It was an amazing moment in women’s sport in this country, and to be out there in the middle was very humbling. We were grateful for the experience, even if the result didn’t go our way.

But the biggest lesson of all has been seeing the impact we can have on people.

We attended a Cricket For Good clinic in Perth before the Sri Lanka game. There was a little girl in attendance by the name of Leah, and she was really shy at the start.

She eventually plucked up the courage to speak up. When she did, she asked me if we could swap hats. I gave her my training cap and I wore her little bucket hat.

After the Sri Lanka game at the WACA, I spotted Leah in the crowd.

She was still wearing my hat and she’d made a big sign which was a drawing of the two of us standing next to each other. To see her with a big smile on her face put a smile on mine. And that, to me, is the most important thing about this tournament.

We’ve wanted to entertain and inspire big crowds for a long time. It was something we’d hoped would happen at this World Cup — and it has.

Absolutely, we want to win every game we play. But there’s a bigger picture, too. Hopefully we’ve inspired some young girls and boys to play cricket and be ­active.

And hopefully there’s more to come in the days ahead.