Georgia Wareham was a shining light in Australia's washed out Twenty20 contest with India last night (Photo - Cricket Australia).
Not even half of last night’s opening Twenty20 between Australia and India could be played before rain interrupted yet again, but it still gave Southern Stars leg-spinner Georgia Wareham enough opportunity to praise a future teammate.
Although on the opposite side of India’s Jemimah Rodrigues, as she struck an exhilarating 49 not out off 36 balls, the Aussie leggie was still thinking about how Rodrigues’ dynamic approach could benefit Wareham’s Melbourne Renegades in the upcoming WBBL.
“It’s a tricky one at the moment,” Wareham laughed.
“I don’t think we want to see her batting that well right now from an Australian perspective, but when Soph (fellow Renegades and Aussie teammate Sophie Molineux) and I came off the ground we thought it was really exciting for the Renegades, which is probably not the right thing to say in an Australian kit.”
Rodrigues capitalised on a strong start by her fellow openers, with Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma both scoring quickly off Australia’s opening bowlers to boost India to 4-131 off 15.2 overs before rain ended the Gold Coast contest early.
Wareham admitted the Australian bowling lineup “didn’t bowl the way we would have liked at the start”, but believes the mixed showing has taught them helpful lessons for the final two matches in the series.
“As a unit, we just missed a lot of our spots, so we’ll tighten our plans to Mandhana at the top,” Wareham said.
“To Rodrigues, we haven’t seen her yet in the series, we gave her a bit of width and she used our pace at the start, so it was a good chance to get a look at her and adjust from there.”
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Despite the night not going to plan for the Southern Stars, Wareham herself made more headway on her return from a quad injury in the one-day international leg of the series. After snaring the wicket of Yastika Bhatia with her first ball for the night, Wareham finished with hopeful figures of 1/3 off 1.2 overs.
Having been given limited opportunities in the test match against India, Wareham was proud of her ability to change her game in quick time for the Twenty20 format.
“It was all about being a little more patient, going back to test match cricket you’re probably creating a bit more and using more patience,” Wareham explained.
“In Twenty20 cricket it’s probably my pace that changes the most, it’s just about trying to be simple and not change too much.”
Although not privy to the mid-wicket chatter that was occurring between wicket-keeper Alyssa Healy and some Indian batters, Wareham was certain the interactions were borne from the excitement of a hard-fought contest.
“There’s plenty of excitement in the game, I wouldn’t call them send-offs but rather excitement at getting a wicket,” Wareham said.
“It’s a pretty tough contest, and India are right in it.”
The Multi-Format series continues on Saturday night when Australia takes on India in the second Twenty20 at Gold Coast’s Metricon Stadium.
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