NEW DELHI: An Ashes game at the Feroze Shah Kotla sounds preposterous? Well, we will get one when the Australian women's team gets ready to face familiar foes England in the first semifinal here on Wednesday.
The clash between these traditional 'Ashes' foes is a regular feature in women's T20 cricket. It will be their eighth T20 showdown since January 2014 and their 25th overall, with the results 14-9 in England's favour. England though, haven't had the luck of the draw when it comes to World T20. After winning the inaugural edition in 2009, England have lost to Australia on four occasions in knockout clashes. Australia, who won two titles under Jodie Fields in 2010 and 2012, went on to lift the trophy under current skipper Meg Lanning in 2014.
"I am not sure if we are the favourites. England have been unbeaten in the tournament so far but in World Cup it is always close. We love to play against them because of the rivalry I guess," Lanning said.
"There is a fair bit of banter out there when we play. The women's Big Bash League has brought us closer but we like taking them on the front foot," she added.
Her rival skipper Charlotte Edwards feels they are 'frenemies' now. "We are definitely something like 'frenemies' now. It was a brilliant experience for the English girls to go and play in the Big Bash down under. Both sides know a lot about each other now," Edwards said.
Australian women are familiar with Kotla having played a couple of games here already. "It's hard to tell how the pitch will behave. They had just watered the track when we went out there. It behaved differently the last two times we played here," Lanning said.