Unknown threat to Australia's Cup campaign

The Australian women’s side face an unknown enemy in Thursday’s T20 match, anything less than a victory spelling an end to their World Cup campaign.

Perry's shoulder not an issue

Australia will take on Bangladesh in a must-win fixture at Manuka Oval on Thursday evening to keep their World Cup dream alive.

Bangladesh are arguably the weakest side in Australia’s group, but after losing their opening fixture against India last week, every match is crucial for Meg Lanning and her teammates.

These two sides have never played each other in the sport’s shortest format, adding and extra sense of uncertainty for the Australians.

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Play is scheduled to commence at 7pm AEDT.

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Unknown threat to Australia's Cup campaign

Australian women’s cricket has moved from strength to strength with its top flight now fully-fledged professionals.

Lanning said the scrutiny Australia had faced over the past week just proved how much has been achieved.

“People want us to do well and I think it’s a great sign,” she said.

“Obviously you’d much prefer to be playing excellent cricket and everything going your way but that’s the reality, it doesn’t just happen in world cups and you’ve got to be able to fight your way through difficult periods.

“All we’ve talked about over the last two days is playing Bangladesh and how we could improve.”

Lanning defended batting their best player Ellyse Perry at six and seven in the opening games and backed the superstar all-rounder to have a big impact on the rest of the tournament.

“The top six batters all could open the batting realistically and it just genuinely comes down to the matchups on the day and the game situations,” Lanning said.

“Ellyse is a world-class player and no doubt she’ll get her chance at some point but we’ve just got to be really flexible and whatever the team needs we’re going to do.”

All-rounder Sophie Molineux must pass a fitness test to play her first match of the tournament.

AAP

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