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ICC WOMEN'S WORLD T20

February 24, 2020

Rachael Haynes

Perth, Western Australia, Western Australia

Australia - 123/5, Sri Lanka - 122/6

Q. Rachael, one thing that we noticed is that Ellyse Perry batted low again. It seemed a deliberate attempt to keep the left-right combination out there as well as with the opening combination. Just talk us through the thinking behind that.
RACHAEL HAYNES: Yeah, I think it's one of the strengths of our batting order is our depth, and the left-right hand is within it. We've been doing that for a long time now, just making sure we try to keep those combinations where we can. That means, I guess, the bowler has to make an adjustment as well, as opposed to settling in and bowling to one type of our batter. So it's a strength of our lineup we try to use.

Q. Just to follow up on that, there are obviously top order batters like yourself and Ellyse Perry, but then Nicola Carey is in the side as an all rounder, not as well-known for her batting as Ellyse is, but she came in ahead of Ellyse. So would that strategy continue irrespective of whether the batter is a proper top order batter or not?
RACHAEL HAYNES: Yeah, it's the same strategy. I guess, from our point of view, it's team first. It doesn't matter if you're one of the best players in the world, which obviously Ellyse is. She's a great player and certainly valuable with the bat within our team.

But, yeah, obviously, I got out at that stage, and Matthew wanted to keep that combination going. So Nic came in, and I think you saw today she's really capable of finding the boundary and doing what needed to be done. So, yeah, I would imagine they would keep that.

Q. How were the nerves when those early wickets fell?
RACHAEL HAYNES: Actually, it was feeling okay, particularly walking out there as well and pretty fortunate that one of the best batters in the world is standing at the other end. Meg and I played a lot of cricket together. We knew it was just a matter of calming things down and slowing the game down a little bit and getting a really good partnership together. I think we were able to consolidate and do that.

It didn't feel easy to bat out there, to be honest. I felt like I cloffed nearly every shot that I played today, perhaps with the exception of one. We knew, more than anything, that the partnership was really valuable. So it was nice to be able to come together and get us back in a position where we could attack.

Q. There were a few dropped catches out there as well.
RACHAEL HAYNES: The boundary got in the way as well. That was handy, wasn't it?

Q. Yeah, for you it was. Were you aware and was Meg aware out there she got a little bottom edge but Sri Lanka had burned their review?
RACHAEL HAYNES: Yeah, it wasn't at the time. Someone mentioned afterwards. Yeah, I guess they made a choice to refer the decision earlier, which meant that they lost their referral. So it just shows you how important it is with the referrals to make sure that you're really confident that it is out or you think there's something that needs to be challenged. So, yeah, I guess the rub of the green went our way today.

Q. You guys fought back to restrict them to bowl 120. Did you think the chase was going to come that close or be that difficult?
RACHAEL HAYNES: I think it's always tricky starting here in Perth, particularly coming from the ground we played, so probably couldn't get two different wickets to bat on. Perhaps I think maybe early a couple of our wickets, the batters just got caught on the crease a little bit. I thought the bowlers did an exceptional job to keep them to that title, and we were really confident heading into the break it was chasable, and if we applied ourselves, to get the runs.

Q. Pacing the run chase, you sort of launched towards the end there. Did you feel like it was always in hand, though?
RACHAEL HAYNES: Look, I think we just wanted to make sure we went at the right time. That was all. Just given how challenging it was to start. So we wanted to pick our bowlers in the right end as well. I probably had a little bit of luck just getting it over the top a couple of times.

Yeah, I think with this ground as well, you sort of know the ball races so quickly across the field. So you never feel too far off the mark if you stay within a certain percentage of balls versus runs required.

Q. You've lost the first game. Pretty much scraped home in the second one. There's been so much made about Australia being successful in this tournament. Is there pressure showing? Is that what's going on?
RACHAEL HAYNES: I hope today showed our character, to be honest. World Cup tournaments aren't easy, and playing at home, we're enjoying the opportunity to do it. You can't escape the fact it's different from a normal series where perhaps you can drop a game here or there and get back in the contest, whereas World Cup cricket, you have to keep winning. That's the nature of the beast.

Sure, there's a couple of nerves today, but I hope today showed the character that's in the group, and to be able to get over the line right at the end there, I think it's going to hopefully create some wonderful momentum heading into rest of the tournament.

Q. Rachael, would you rate the 60-run knock as by far your best and most valuable T20 knock, having just completed ten years of T20 and cricket?
RACHAEL HAYNES: I'm not sure. Hopefully, I've got another one in me given we're not through the tournament yet. Listen, I think we talk a lot about having match-winning contributions, and sometimes it requires beginnings, and sometimes it requires impactful innings in T20 cricket. Today I think Meg and I came together and we did that job. We won the game of cricket for our team. It was obviously an important moment because we needed to win today to stay in the contest.

But, yeah, from my point of view, it was just really nice to share in that with Meg. Today is also her 100th match. So it was really nice to not only win but obviously win a big game for her too.

Q. You came in at number 5 today. In the last few matches you've been back anywhere from number 4 to number 7. How does that feel as a player to not know when you're coming in, and when do you actually know that you're going to be sent in next?
RACHAEL HAYNES: I actually don't mind it. We don't necessarily look at it in the traditional sense of you're opening today or you're batting at 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. It's more sometimes comes down to the situation, or as we've shown, left-right hand combinations. So sometimes Ellyse Perry will go in ahead of me. Sometimes I'll go in ahead of Ash Gardner. It just sort of comes down to the balance of the match.

That's been something we've thrived on as a group over the last couple of years is people knowing their roles. It's more about having clarity on your role as opposed to getting fixated on a number you bat in the lineup.

Q. When you came in at 3 for 10, what did Meg say to you at the crease? What was the message from the captain?
RACHAEL HAYNES: She just said it's actually playing really well and the ball was just sliding onto the bat. So just play nice and straight and get a partnership going. To be honest, going out there, I honestly knew that's what we needed is to have a good partnership. Meg and I have played a lot of cricket together over the years, so we know each other's games really well. I think we run really well between wickets too.

So for me, it was all about getting in the contest. Yeah, I enjoy batting with Meg too. She sort of knows when I'm getting antsy and walks down the wicket and tells me off. Yeah, today was a special innings. It was nice to be a part of it.

Q. You touched on it a bit earlier, but now that you've got the one win on the board, what do you think you can do for the rest of the tournament? How much of a relief is it to get one on the board now?
RACHAEL HAYNES: Yeah, I think hopefully it settles our group down a little bit. Obviously, the other day didn't go as planned, but as I said that's the nature of tournament cricket. You don't always have it your own way. We knew we were going to get challenged at different times. Playing T20 cricket you're riding this wave of emotion and momentum too. We had that at different stages within the game today, and we had to fight to it to get back to batting innings.

Yeah, I think more than anything it will be really nice to carry it on heading into Canberra in our game against Bangladesh.

Q. One of the conversations in this group, considering it's so competitive, is that it could go down to net run rate. Halfway stage restricted to 120, or was there a conversation to get the runs early so that it will boost net run rate?
RACHAEL HAYNES: No, we didn't have those conversations. Yeah, it was really just about getting the score today and winning the matches.

Q. Your next opponent is one you've never played before. How do you go about preparing for that?
RACHAEL HAYNES: Yeah, it's going to be an interesting challenge. We've obviously watched them play a little bit over the years. So it's a little bit of an unknown. I guess, in some respects, it just makes it a lot clearer. We can focus on ourselves a little bit and what we want to get right, any little things we want to tidy up from today. It's probably a good thing we don't know them. We can just go out there and play cricket and hit the ball.

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