Despite Australia getting its Women’s T20 World Cup title defence off to a flying start, left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux said the side needs to tighten up its fielding and bowling efforts ahead of their second Group A clash against New Zealand. Despite Australia getting a six-wicket win over Sri Lanka, its fielding wasn’t usually sharp. The side had one dropped catch and a missed stumping while conceding 13 extras with the ball – pacer Darcie Brown gave away a wide and three no balls in her lone over yielding 12 runs.

“We probably could be a bit cleaner in the field. It (Sharjah) definitely was a different field to what we sort of played on back in Australia and it’s a bit slower and bigger. I think that we can definitely go up a notch in the field and even in bowling I think we can probably tighten up bits and pieces there too.”

“It was great to see Beth (Mooney) out there get some runs. Ash (Gardner) looked really good with the bat as well and all the bowlers chipped in at different points in time. So, there’s definitely still things to improve on, but it was a good start,” said Sophie in the pre-match press conference.

Australia beat New Zealand 3-0 in the T20I series at Mackay last month, but the White Ferns come after trouncing pre-tournament favourites India by 58 runs in Dubai. Sophie believes New Zealand will present a different challenge to Australia in the slow conditions of Sharjah.

“They played out of their skin and really attacked the Indian team. So it won’t be too dissimilar to how we approach every game and that’s to come out with intensity and obviously the conditions are very different to where we played them back in Australia.”

“But again, it’s just adapting and they’ve obviously had a really good win so they’re going to come in on a high and hopefully we can carry on our momentum as well,” she added.

Tuesday’s clash will also be Australia’s first game in the tournament under lights, and Sophie remarked Australia will be prepared to counter the dew factor if it arrives in their clash against New Zealand.

“It definitely could be a factor. We’ve sort of taken that into account, especially over the last couple of weeks in Brisbane and Mackay, there was a bit of dew up there so that was good preparation.”

“But doing some catching under lights, all the little things like that, I felt like we’ve sort of been able to tick that off in our preparation, the series before against New Zealand. Hopefully, it’s a bit cooler at night too. So, we’re looking forward to that.”