So much has happened since arriving in Dhaka. We have had a number of trainings and also a couple of warm up games, so I figured I'd try and keep you all up to date as best I can!
Our training sessions were 1.5 hours from our hotel which often meant early mornings and we were travelling for the same amount of time that we were training. Despite that being a little bit of an inconvenience, we were able to see more of Dhaka and for some girls, it was a chance to catch up on some tv shows. When getting to training, we never know what we are going to get. We are supposed to have 3 nets per training session however, often we'd turn up to 1 net. The sub continent challenges you in various ways and the it's the team that adapts the best that comes out on top. It's what we did so well in India for the ODI World Cup last year. And it's the same rule for this World Cup.
Our practice match against Sri Lanka was a decent hit out. Our batters got to face some new bowlers and the pitch was different to all the ones we had trained on. There is so much variable bounce over here, which is a positive for us bowlers considering the batters have to keep guessing. We ended up winning by 20 runs which was a solid effort for our first hit out.Our second warm up game didn't go as smoothly. We decided we'd bowl first so at least we had a crack at setting a score and chasing throughout the 2 matches. Deandra Dottin was on fire for the West Indies. She is definitely a batter to fear as she can change a game within a couple of balls. She ended up making her half century off just 30 balls. We lost the game by 16 runs and the difference was Dottin. We learnt a lot from that game. We won the batting powerplay but then we didn't capitalise and it was much the same when we were bowling.
It's hard to pick a favourite in this tournament. New Zealand recently beat the West Indies in a series before this T20 World Cup. England only narrowly beat Pakistan, then went on to bowl New Zealand out for 48 which was a massive upset. Each team has plenty of new faces, including the Southern Stars, so it's going to be whoever turns up on the day to play.
Outside of cricket, the pranks have begun! Alex Blackwell, Julie Hunter, Delissa Kimmince and I thought it'd be funny to swap some people over in their rooms. So while Elyse Villani and Nicole Bolton were at dinner with their roommates, we snuck into their room, packed up and swapped their gear. The first thing Junior (Villani) thought was that they were in the wrong room, however her roommate Meg's gear was still there. The next thing she was worried about were her snacks! Not her laptop, or her clothes, but her snacks! The following day, the 4 of us pranksters had training while the other girls had a rest day - a perfect time for them to retaliate. When we came home, we soon found Alex's doorway was covered in filled up water bottles. We are contemplating our next move so I'll be sure to keep you posted!
We travelled to Sylhet for our round games. Today we take on New Zealand and it's sure to be an absolute ripper to start the business side of the T20 World Cup..
Make sure you get behind the girls on social media - we all appreciate your tweets and messages of support and hope we can do you all proud and start our World Cup campaign off with a bang!
Go to www.cricket.com.au for the live scores.
