18 March - Auckland - Australia Coach Matthew Mott pre-match press conference
MEDIA MANAGER: Hey guys, thanks for joining us. Obviously got my team out here ahead of our game against India tomorrow. It's just those of you on the line so whoever's got a question pop your hand up and we'll get going then.
Ben, do you want to kick us off?
Reporter: Happy to! Good day, Mottie. Have you got much World Cup history against India? Does anything stick out in your mind when you think about playing the Indians?
MOTT: Very good question. Yeah. I think any game against India is a big one. I think the home of rugby here in New Zealand is going to be very special. We just come off the field there this afternoon. It's got a great aura about this ground and I think playing great teams in great venues is what this team is all about. And we're very much looking forward to it. We had an excellent net session, some players in form, and look forward to taking them on.
REPORTER: Some batters off the short boundaries?
MOTT: Yeah, it's not just the short boundaries, it's a bit of an odd shape, the ground. Obviously, it is primarily a football ground so or rugby ground. So yeah, there's some little pockets here, that the batters especially were out there, surveying the area and getting a feel for it. The groundsman gave Meg, on sort of how the domestic players how they play here. So yeah, we've got a few things up our sleeve and hopefully, we can execute them tomorrow night.
REPORTER: Can I ask you more soberly about the World Cup experience against India?
I appreciate the team's probably moved on. It was such a long time ago, but there's a lot written about it, said about it externally. How do you manage it?
MOTT: Well, I suppose it's not as a non-event internally. You know, we're just looking forward to another match. It's an opportunity to, you know, to put our case forward for the semi-finals, which is what we come here to do. And I think that everyone seems to be beating everyone at the moment. So to get out in front with another win would be a huge advantage. And then we can sort of dictating our own terms on the finals. But yeah, there's a lot to play for. Literally, the last thing on our mind at the moment is what happened five years ago, so yeah, we're just really determined to make every match count. India's their only focus at the moment. We've done a lot of research on them, and we match up well against them. They're a good cricket side but it's going to be a hell of a game tomorrow night.
REPORTER: Thank you, I’ll hand over the mic. Cheers mate.
MOTT: Thank you. Cheers.
SPEAKER: Thanks, Ben. L.J?
REPORTER: Mottie, can you suppose you have a full squad available to pick from and if you have settled on your 11 for tomorrow?
MOTT: We do have a full squad to pick from and we will definitely be catching up this afternoon myself, Fleggs and Meg and delve back into the selectors back home. We've got a fair idea of what we're doing. We just need to cross a few things off but everyone's all clear ready to play.
REPORTER: Do you have much of what to expect from the conditions? I know when you played at this ground a year ago, I think there are the 2.5 overs possible and then they got washed out.
MOTT: Yeah, I was lucky enough to come over here for a tri-series for the men's team a few years ago and played a few games here. So it is a fast bouncy wicket that's all the intel around that is it's one of the quicker wickets to carry nicely through which excites us. The ground itself obviously, it's a dropping wicket there's it's not a big square. So, you know, it's a bit different around the actual wicket block, pace off the pitch. Obviously, the lights are a little bit different than most traditional grounds. So really, we found it a little bit difficult out there just to get a feel for the ground. So that's something we'll have to adapt to really quickly tomorrow night. But yeah, really looking forward I think it should it should be a hell of a game. They are a very good cricket team and we look forward to playing them.
REPORTER:: Great. Thanks, Mottie.
MOTT: Thanks, LJ.
MEDIA MANAGER: Gomesh, do you want to jump in?
REPORTER: Thanks, Lucy. Hi, coach, I just wanted to ask once again about following up on the ground. As you mentioned about the batting, it's also about bowling and bringing in different kinds of tactics with respect to the pockets and dimensions that are there and, also this ground, especially the 2015 World Cup, has had some of the epic contests and India-Australia often seems to produce that kind of contest in World Cups as well. If you can touch upon both of those things.
MOTT: Yeah, I definitely think, it looks great. The wickets out the back. They're outstanding batting pitches. So I think from the bowling perspective, we will certainly be trying to encourage everyone to be aggressive at the start. We want to take early wickets which we've done pretty well throughout the tournament. But if they do get on top, there's some Plan B's and C's that we've got up our sleeve that might be. Whether it's wide, wide lines, or change of pace, every bowler in our squad is very different. So when Meg asks them to bowl, making sure they're really clear on what their job is at the time. And that's really important for our structure. So, with a number of buying options, it does give Meg plenty of opportunities to be flexible, shorter spells, if there's a wind-up, you know, certain bowlers might bowl into it. So, I think having come from Wellington in the last couple of days, weather conditions have been quite disruptive at times of big winds and gusts, I think our bowling groups had a pretty good spot to adapt to these conditions as well.
REPORTER: Thank you and all the best.
MOTT: Thank you.
SPEAKER: Dan Brettig?
REPORTER: Good day, Matt. I just wanted to ask how closely you looked at England, India and whether you took much from the way that I suppose England were able to corral India the other day on the different ground. But yeah, just your thoughts on that. And I suppose wanting to keep India to a similarly tied-in, I would imagine.
MOTT: It's a funny one. I think there's always been through the last few years, different teams beat each other and you can't read a lot into them because we're very different. And I think certainly, we had a good run against England recently but England-India is very different to Australia-India. So there are peculiar things to both teams. We match up with our bowling-lineup is considerably different in the way we approach the game. So, read a little bit into it, but mainly we will just stick to our strengths as a bowling group. And the clarity as I said before, for each bowler on how they execute their best skills, and bowling, the best balls under pressure is more about what we're about at the moment.
REPORTER: And they're just on the batting side of things. Can you just talk through sort of why or what you've what you think? Rach, in particular, has been doing well this tournament and sort of, you know her lead into it in terms of how she prepared now and how well she’s played.
MOTT: Well, she's like, Yeah, I think she's prepared incredibly well throughout the tournament. Yeah, she's an ultimate professional. She knows the game really well. She's hit the least of everyone today, which is always a good sign that she's in good form. I think she's incredibly coachable as well. She's always looking for little things to improve on. But essentially, I think she's just given herself time and I think in one day cricket, we've played a lot of T20 cricket in the last couple of years. So, from a betting perspective, you know, the old cliche is you got more time than you think. I think what she's done is invested some balls early, respected some of the opening attacks that we've come up against, and give herself an opportunity to spend time in the middle, adjust the conditions, and then what we talk about is match-winning contributions. Whether they'd be not-outs or being hundreds and she's done both in the last few games. So I think the way she's batted is pretty much the blueprint for our top four. We talk a lot about the top four doing the bulk of the work and then you know we can finish off late with some of the power-hitting we got towards the back end.
REPORTER: Thank you.
MOTT: Thanks, man.
MEDIA MANAGER: Annesha, assuming you have a question anymore. You just popped your hand down?
REPORTER: Yeah, that’s correct. Dan’s covered it already.
SPEAKER: Perfect and Niharika, did you want to jump in?
REPORTER: Thanks, Lucy. Hi, Coach. My question for you is, will be the first time Eden Park is going to host a World Cup match in this tournament. What if we could talk around the team about adjusting to the dimension, especially with regards to catching under the lights?
MOTT: Yeah, that is something we have spoken about before and even just out there before. It's a busy ground. I was nicked for the catching group and we did struggle. So, I suppose it's what we do. Talk about controlling what you can control. It’ll be the same for both teams. So watching the ball becomes even more important and particularly watching from a catching perspective right into your hands. I think that's giving you every chance but there's no doubt there's going to be a little bit different. The lights are a lot lower. And it's primarily designed for rugby. So that's just the way it is I think it's it's both teams have to deal with that. So we just hope we adapt better than them.
REPORTER: Coach, May I also ask, how is the confidence in the group? Australia is a force to reckoned with in the World Cup and they haven't been defeated? So how is confidence in the group ahead of a big match against India?
MOTT: Yeah, it's a good time to play India. I see them as an incredibly dangerous side. So yeah, we are rolling some confidence at the moment. But as we always say, it's this game in isolation and everything that we're talking about the moments about how we can combat India. I think they’ve got one of the best new-ball bowling attacks in the world. And we found that out last summer. So once again, we've talked before about negating that, and trying to build a base, is very important. From a bowling perspective, they just keep coming with you know, with genuine match winners. So even if we get off to a good start, we've got to respect that they've got some dangerous players down the order that can hurt us as well. And it's a game that we have to be our very, very best to overcome them and then we'll reset for the next one.
REPORTER: Thanks and good luck for the match tomorrow.
MEDIA MANAGER: Thank you and last time one from you, Vinayak.
REPORTER: Thanks, good luck with the match tomorrow. My question is more general than just the India match. So how are the training policies different during a tournament than say, you know, in a buildup to it? Do you focus less on the intensity in the middle of a tournament and quality rather than quantity? Just tell us a little bit about the differences.
MOTT: It's a very, very good question. I think this has certainly been our most difficult campaign to plan for. We came straight out of the Ashes straight into lockdown for seven days over here. So we were working it out a little bit on the run, we were getting a gut feel, we were asking the players, consulting on different things. And certainly, our medical staff are more involved than in any time before. So we made the approach that we were down tools for a little bit after that we made sure we've mentally freshed and up did some normal things. So that when we got into this tournament, we're eating to go and ready ready to train hard. So in terms of our training, we try and keep it short and sharp in between games. We try and get players a lot of time off to rest and do other things outside of the game. So that when they come to the game, that they're fully switched on and got the energy to carry through 50 over cricket, especially compared to T20, which is a long day. So you need every ounce of energy and that's the way we try and prepare in between those games.
SPEAKER: Thanks, guys. Thank you very much for joining us. I'm sure we will chat to you all tomorrow.
MOTT: Thank you.