With Australia set to face South Africa in the semi-final of the ICC Women’s World Cup, stand-in captain Tahlia McGrath addressed the media ahead of the high-stakes clash. Australia remains unbeaten in the tournament so far and are chasing their eighth world title, but McGrath emphasized that the focus remains on improvement, execution, and belief.
“South Africa are a very dangerous side, and we’ve seen that a lot in this tournament,” McGrath said. “We do have a good record against them, but there still is something to play for in this World Cup. We want to take that momentum into the finals and we also finish top spot. There’s still a lot to play for, and it’s going to be a really tough game.”
Providing an update on captain Alyssa Healy, McGrath revealed that Healy is being monitored closely. “She’s at training… It’s still a day-by-day case to see case and we’ll see how that pans out,” McGrath stated. On the side searching for a positive game, she added, “Every game, we’ve reviewed and found little areas to improve on. The most pleasing thing is, we found a way to win, we’ve got a belief as a group that we can win from any position, so that’s been a massive positive… Still striving for what you call a perfect game, but really happy with how we have played our cricket and found ways to win in this tournament.”
Reflecting on her leadership role, McGrath admitted she enjoyed the challenge of stepping in for Healy.
“I really enjoyed the England game. Certainly, have to listen a bit more in meetings and little more be switched on. Really enjoyed the opportunity to lead, really enjoyed working with Ash, stepping into that vice-captain role. We are blessed with so much support in the Australian teams with bowlers being so diligent in their plans, it’s a seamless transition and as much I enjoyed it, pretty keen for Midge to come back as soon as possible.”
When asked how Australia prepare for a side they haven’t faced often, McGrath highlighted consistency and balance in their approach. “I don’t think we have to over prepare too much, we’ve been here for six weeks now. We’ve got a lot of training under our belt, got a lot of games under our belt, so it’s just about managing what we need to get out of our training,” she said.
McGrath credited the team’s depth for their consistent success. “We always talk about our depth as a real strength of us,” she said. “We’ve seen someone different stand up everytime. Ash has got two hundreds, Midge (Healy) has got two hundreds, Moons (Beth Mooney) with that huge hundred for us, so we feel as though someone steps up, and has a big innings every game.
“The other thing we talk is big partnerships, that’s very crucial for us, and like I said, we’ve got that much that if it doesn’t come off from top of the order, nobody panics, we know we can win from any situation, we know we’ve got enough talent that we can get the job done, so it’s been nice for us to showcase that talent, that depth and hopefully more for the rest of the tournament.”
With several Australian players participating in the Women’s Premier League (WPL), McGrath acknowledged its role in helping players adapt to Indian conditions.
“We’ve spent a lot of time in India over the last couple of years, lots of us have been exposed to the WPL which has been some high-pressure moments and games, it’s been awesome for women’s game. We’ve toured here India a lot, that’s held us in good stead with conditions and crowd, just the whole package that you get when you are in India. So we are loving our time at the moment.”
As the tournament reaches its decisive phase, McGrath reaffirmed Australia’s purpose and mindset. “We come over here with the purpose to win the World Cup, that’s still the purpose and we are playing really good cricket,” she said confidently. “The biggest thing for us is the belief, we feel like we are playing very good cricket, we feel we can win from any point. It comes crunch time of the competition now, and nothing changes for us.”
Australia remains unbeaten and full of belief heading into the semi-final. With Tahlia McGrath leading from the front and Alyssa Healy’s return looming, the defending champions appear well-poised for another title charge.
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