Australia could have to win the World Cup final without Ellyse Perry

While Australia was thrashing the West Indies to reach the World Cup final, superstar Ellyse Perry was training as she continues to try to prove her fitness to play in Sunday’s decider.

Perry has missed her team’s last two matches after suffering back spasms and teammate Megan Schutt said it would be “crazy” if she didn’t play in the final in Christchurch, having missed Australia’s T20 World Cup triumph in 2020 with injury.

The 31-year-old batted in the nets during Australia’s comprehensive defeat of the Windies on Wednesday in Wellington, then did some running after the game.

Perry travelled to Christchurch on Thursday with a big decision still to be made on whether she plays in the final, and if she does, who to leave out of the team.

Schutt said the whole team was “making sure we rally around Pez”, with no clear idea what her immediate future looked like.

“My first thought when we heard she was having back spasms (was) ‘surely she’s not missing another World Cup final?’” she said.

“It’s a tough break for someone who’s had such a long and successful career. It’d be crazy if she couldn’t take the field on Sunday

“One plus is we have a whole bench to back that up. As much as I would love Pez to be on that field, and she would too, we know we’ve got the replacements, but hopefully it doesn’t come.”

Schutt is one of five players in the Australian squad, the others being Perry, Rachael Haynes, Alyssa Healy and captain Meg Lanning, who tasted success in the 2013 World Cup.

But Schutt was also part of the 2017 World Cup semi-final loss, a defeat that kickstarted a world record run of ODI wins. She said there had been significant value in that loss, but making the final this time should ensure all talk of that loss now disappeared.

“That was a very long time ago, we were a very different team. It’s almost a 180 flip and what that brought was a level of accountability and professionalism we didn’t have back then,” she said.

“That was the kick up the butt we kind of needed. That created a really good dynasty for us and it’s nice five years later to be in a final.”

Opener Healy, who smashed 129 against the Windies to steer Australia into the final, on the back of an eight-match winning run, said the Aussies “worked harder than anyone else” to get to the decider.

But that job’s not done yet.

“I mean, this group of girls, I think we’ve got 17 with us on this trip, work harder than anybody else. I mean, if you come to training, you can see just how hard people are working,” Healy said.

“I think that’s probably what’s most impressive about our group is we haven’t really been caught napping at any point. It’s just come here, get the job done and prepare for the next game.

“There’s obviously a great sense of achievement down in the change room at the minute, but there’s also a little bit of unfinished business. We want to get there on Sunday and put a good performance together and hopefully lift that trophy.”