Australia has stopped a pre-game activity that almost ruined Ashleigh Gardner’s T20 World Cup. Gardner also encouraged her team’s batters to perform well in the third T20I against New Zealand in Brisbane on Tuesday.
Gardner missed the first game of the series against New Zealand in Mackay last Thursday. She had collided with teammate Georgia Wareham while trying to catch a soft ‘Vortex’ ball during a warm-up.
At first, Gardner laughed off the incident, but later she left the field in tears. She feared it might be her eighth career concussion, and doctors decided she couldn’t play that game.
Fortunately, she was cleared to play, and she came back strong on Sunday. Gardner was named player of the match after taking 3 wickets for 16 runs, helping her team to a 29-run victory over New Zealand.
In 2018, the 27-year-old visited a neuropsychologist after suffering four concussions within 20 months.
“It’s been good to return after a strange moment, a head bump during warm-up,” she said. “It felt strange, but I’ve been feeling really good in the last few days.”
She added, “I’ve had many head injuries before, so I know when I am concussed and when I’m not.”
Before Sunday’s game, the team didn’t use the Vortex ball, and Gardner confirmed they had changed their pre-match routine.
“The Vortex is gone for the rest of the tour,” she said.
Usually happy to chase, captain Alyssa Healy chose to bat first on Sunday to help her team set the pace before next month’s World Cup defense in Dubai.
Healy started strong, scoring 38 runs from 25 balls, but Australia’s innings slowed down. The team had a big collapse, losing their last seven wickets for just 28 runs. Amelia Kerr took her best-ever figures in T20, getting 4 wickets for 20 runs.
Even though Australia only scored 142 runs, it was enough because of their strong bowling. But Ashleigh Gardner wants the team to do better in their final game in Brisbane on Tuesday before heading to the UAE.
“We have more to give, and hopefully, if we bat first in the next game, we can score a big total,” Gardner said.
She mentioned there were no excuses for their performance, especially with a strong batting lineup, where Annabel Sutherland came in as the eighth batter.
“Sutherland batting at number eight shows how deep our lineup is,” Gardner said. “We haven’t played in Dubai before, so it’s a bit unknown for us. But knowing we can defend a score like 140 gives us confidence in our bowlers.”
She added, “The skill we have in all areas of the game was shown. It was a very professional performance.”
