Women’s World Cup: Blow for Australia as Ellyse Perry ruled out of semifinal

Wellington : Six-time ICC Women’s World Cup champions Australia suffered a huge blow ahead of their semifinal against the West Indies at Basin Reserve on Wednesday as their star all-rounder Ellyse Perry was ruled out due to injury.Perry had complained of back spasm during Australia’s group match against South Africa last week, where she left the field early after bowling just three overs and then failed to bat.The Australian team management was quite optimistic till Monday that the 31-year-old would recover in time to take on West Indies, but the last-four clash has come too soon.”Unfortunately she (Perry) just ran out of time to prove her fitness,” Australia captain Meg Lanning was quoted as saying by the ICC on Tuesday.”We will keep assessing her if we are to progress in the tournament so unfortunate for her and the team, obviously a big blow, but we feel like we’ve got some good depth to be able to cover it and we’re going to have to do that tomorrow.”

Lanning is hopeful that Perry can be fit for the final, should Australia overcome West Indies in Wednesday’s semifinal.”We haven’t looked too far ahead, we’ll keep assessing her if we are to progress but the team and squad is very focussed on tomorrow,” Lanning added. “I’m sure there’s work going on in the background to get her up if we were to get through.”Young all-rounder Annabel Sutherland will likely replace Perry, while teenage pace bowler Darcie Brown is a certain starter after she sat out their final group match against Bangladesh.Perry was named Player of the Match when Australia defeated the West Indies earlier in the tournament, following a superb spell of fast bowling that claimed top-order wickets of Deandra Dottin, Hayley Matthews and Kycia Knight and netted figures of 3/22.