England batter Tammy Beaumont said that they would be desperate to get the wicket of Chamari Athapaththu during the clash between both sides on Saturday, October 11. Athapaththu has been the star player for Sri Lanka over the past few years.
00:00Afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us for this pre-match press conference.
00:04Please ensure you've got a microphone in your hand and we'll get started with Dan.
00:10Good luck tomorrow Tammy. First I wanted to ask I suppose your experience coming into this tournament.
00:16We've actually seen a lot of the more experienced players here perform at a high level maybe in comparison to some of the younger players.
00:22How much have you kind of banked on that experience coming into this tournament versus any sort of technical and tinkering changes here while you're at the tournament?
00:30Yeah I think it's always tough to change things in the middle of a tournament or at the beginning of a tournament.
00:37And I think in a way having experience of playing in India and in Sri Lanka you maybe know what to expect and know how to adapt your game slightly more.
00:44And probably the surfaces we've seen have required a bit of that so certainly kind of being there and having done that is always helpful.
00:54So yeah I guess the youngsters have got to learn pretty quick but a few of ours are doing pretty well.
00:59And in terms of your opponents tomorrow they didn't get a chance to play against Australia but they had their moments against India.
01:05What have you kind of seen in their campaign and maybe some of the players of note to look out for for them?
01:10Yeah I think they're a really well structured team and certainly a team on the rise.
01:14I think they're really well organised.
01:16Obviously they've got a lot of left-handers which is not something we're that used to.
01:20Kind of not having any left-handed batters in our squad I think makes things a little bit trickier.
01:27They obviously know their home conditions playing here in Colombo really well.
01:30And I think their bowling attack is really well disciplined and I think particularly when you're playing on spinning wickets if you can be disciplined it makes life quite difficult for the opposition.
01:40So yeah certainly can't take Sri Lanka lightly and expecting probably a good game where we've got to perform well.
01:46Tammy you've seen teams like India and Australia struggle with their batting over here so obviously you know what to expect but what's the preparation been like for the surfaces?
01:59Yeah we've certainly spoken a lot about our method and our blueprint of how we want to go about those things and looked at potentially some of the common themes with the dismissals of the games that have been here and then trying to counteract that.
02:14And I guess tomorrow it's all about putting that into practice and not just talking about it but actually living it and going out there and doing it.
02:21So yeah we'll see if it comes off.
02:23And just on a separate note Beth Mooney said after the last game that she didn't see too much of a difference between the calibre of the teams.
02:31Is that something you would agree with?
02:33Yeah I think the conditions here obviously it being a lot more spin friendly is certainly bringing all the teams together.
02:41I think that you see a team like Bangladesh playing as in the last game was so well disciplined with the ball that it makes life a lot harder
02:50when you can't necessarily trust the spin off the wicket and kind of go to those big release shots.
02:56You have to really earn your runs and I think that means that it's a lot closer together for all the teams and certainly the standard of and depth of every single team has risen in the last four years.
03:06And we're certainly probably going to see a few upsets in this World Cup but hopefully not involving us.
03:12Hi Tammy, all the best for tomorrow.
03:16Can you tell me what the batting debrief looked like for you guys after that Bangladesh game?
03:20Because I know Heather and a lot there were contributions from everybody but I don't think anyone got going initially that authoritatively right?
03:26So what was the conversation like?
03:27Because at one point it looked like Charlotte's way in would burst in her head when things were sort of going wrong completely.
03:33Can you just take us through that one?
03:34Yeah, I think Charlotte lives and breathes every emotion during a game.
03:39I think if I was next in I probably wouldn't be sitting next to her to be fair but I think you love that passion from your head coach.
03:47For us we just spoke about it very logically, we spoke about the conditions that we experienced, gave full credit to the Bangladesh bowlers.
03:54I thought they bowled brilliantly and held their skills for a very long time.
03:58And in a way we spoke a lot about some of the batters that came in, your Alice Capsi's Charlie Dean, about how clear and confident they were in their method and particularly their defence against the spin and then the way they cashed in as they got in.
04:12And yeah, obviously Heather is one of the biggest fighters in our team so she got a bit lucky but once she got in she took the right option, she knew exactly what she was doing and we all take a lot of heart from the way she went about things.
04:24Right, and just one more on the batting front, a lot of the build-up ahead of this tournament was about higher scores and people scoring at a higher rate and I think ODIs have sort of humbled everybody down to say this is a 50-hour game, stop playing it like a T20, right?
04:37But maybe from the last week we've had performances like Beth Mooney, Heather herself in that Bangladesh game.
04:42What notes are you all as batters also taking from these kind of performances where they were able to just stick in rather than how they scored and stuff like that, just able to survive a passage of play and keep going?
04:50Yeah, I think like I said, I think it's the conditions really, like if the ball came on beautifully and didn't spin, didn't seam, didn't swing, we definitely see a lot higher scores.
05:00I think the skill level is there now that if you get suitable conditions, the scores will be a lot bigger but I also think the conditions are giving a good challenge to the batters to actually, you know, apply yourself, use that mindset
05:12and I think that's what we spoke about mainly from Heather's innings was about how patient she was and how precise she was on the ball she wanted to score off
05:20and almost, you know, putting maybe your ego to one side and just trying to really graft one out for the team and be gritty and yeah, I think that's the kind of words we're trying to use
05:32is make sure that, you know, we're working incredibly hard and we might have to sit in for a bit but we know that the longer you bat, the easier it gets.
05:40It certainly seems like a lot of runs are being scored in the last 15 overs in a lot of games and actually sometimes you've just got to try to make it to that point as a batter.
05:49And just last one from me, Lindsay has had a really good tournament so far, just what is the conditioning around her, like how are you guys helping her out in terms of training?
05:57Left arm spinners have done really well throughout the tournament as well across teams, right?
06:00So just what is it like looking at her in the net or just getting her to bowl to you guys as well in prep?
06:06Well actually there's been a few of us that have batted left-handed for her.
06:10She's obviously the only left-handed batter we have in the squad so she's also getting a lot of batting
06:15but obviously she doesn't get to practice against left-handers so yeah, I've switched around a couple of times.
06:20I've only got a sweet shot left-handed so you won't be seeing that but I think, you know, she's someone that maybe hasn't played that much international cricket
06:28but actually she's a little bit older, she's very experienced, she's played some franchise cricket
06:33so she doesn't need too much support from us, she knows what she's doing, she knows her craft so well.
06:39What I love about her is, you know, she had a tough couple of games against India in our summer
06:44and she really reflected, worked incredibly hard and has actually upped her game since then in a very short space of time
06:51and I think that's why it's paying off out here and obviously the conditions are helping
06:55but getting the new ball I think really suits her and she's someone that works incredibly hard and is incredibly honest
07:01so yeah, hopefully it'll continue for her.
07:06Any last questions?
07:10One more, one more.
07:11I will sit last till the end of time if she's willing to sit down.
07:14Always the same characters, yes you can go.
07:16Sorry Tammy, last one, promise.
07:18I know we've spoken a lot about England but also about Sri Lanka, right?
07:21A lot of the batting conversations obviously revolve around Chamari for obvious reasons,
07:24she's held that team together for a very long time.
07:26How much does she maybe dominate your team strategy meetings
07:29or how much have you guys planned for her perhaps?
07:32Yeah, obviously I think you can never write off Chamari at all.
07:36I think we've been on the tough end of it a couple of times over the last few years,
07:42particularly when Sri Lanka came to England, she played a couple of amazing innings
07:46but I think over the last few years there's probably a few more that we started to talk about.
07:51You know, Hashita Samarama, I can't say it, sorry.
07:55You'll have to put it in.
07:56But I think, you know, she's done really well
07:58and there's certainly a lot more depth to that team
08:03that can bat around someone like Chamari.
08:05But she'll certainly be the one we'll be desperate to get out
08:08and be really well planned for
08:09but I feel like our bowling unit and our bowling coach
08:12are really all over the plans at the moment
08:15so we'll have plenty of plans for absolutely all the batters.
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