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Australia women are hoping to build on their
triumphant white-ball campaign in India during South Africa’s
“landmark” visit, according to all-rounder Ellyse Perry.
Australia will host South Africa in the first of three
T20Is on Saturday in Canberra. This will be the first time the sides play in
the format outside of the World Cup arena and the first bilateral series
between them since a five-match ODI in 2016. Australia’s scheduled white-ball
tour of South Africa in 2020 was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Australia won the three-match ODI series and defeated India 2-1 in T20Is over
the New Year period. The tour will conclude in Perth in mid-February with a first-ever
Test match between the two countries, after three ODIs.
Perry stated that Australia was making strong strides
towards figuring out their preferred T20 batting strategy, having recovered
from a setback in their initial match in India and getting ready to play South
Africa for the first time since they defeated them in the T20 World Cup final
about a year ago.
“Really pleasingly, we’re starting to nail down
exactly what that looks like for us,” Perry said. “That’s broadly
speaking for the team, but also for every individual within the batting
line-up. Someone like Phoebe [Litchfield] had a phenomenal series over in
India, both in the one-dayers and the T20s, but I think everyone took some
really great strides forward and it’s a great chance again to start this series
with T20 to just look at continuing to expand that.
“They’re coming pretty hungry after the World Cup
final last year. It’s nice to play them again. They’re a wonderful team,
they’ve got some seriously world-class players in that group. They’ve been
competitive for a long period of time. We’ve had some great tussles against
them, none more so than that World Cup final, so it’s nice to host them here in
Australia and looking forward to the challenge.”