Aussie captain dreams of ultimate accolade in women`s world cup

New Delhi: Australia captain Jodie Fields can seemingly do no wrong at the moment, having led her side to its second ICC Women`s World Twenty20 title in October last year.

The 28-year-old from Queensland went on to lead her team to a 3-1 ODI series victory over New Zealand in the annual Rose Bowl competition. One can therefore afford Fields the opportunity of dreaming of taking her second ICC trophy in the space of five months and she believes that Australia has what it takes to claim the World Cup in India beginning Jan 31. Fields spoke before the event that will see Australia open its campaign against fellow Group B side, Pakistan, Jan 31 at the Bandra-Kurla Complex, saying: "We`re a really passionate and competitive team. We have a lot of drive and we`re always looking to improve our performances as a group and strive for success." "We`re feeling pretty confident going into the tournament. Our squad has been playing good cricket at the domestic level and we`re really looking forward to the challenge of the World Cup. We know that we`ll face some tough competition from the other teams so we`ll have to be on our game, but we don`t feel any added pressure coming off our win in Sri Lanka," she said in an ICC statement. Fields is also looking forward to returning to India, a country where her team has had recent success when it visited in March 2012 and won its series 3-0 against the host. "We`re looking forward to heading back to India for this tournament. We toured India in March last year for some 50-over and 20-over matches and we also held a training camp in Sri Lanka prior to the World Twenty20 so we feel confident that most of the squad players will have had experience in sub-continent conditions, which I think will stand us in good stead." She admits her grouping for the tournament - Group B with New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa - is by no means an easy group: "Our group has some strong sides and we`re expecting some tough games." Fields denied that the group was an easier one than Group A which features England, India, West Indies and Sri Lanka: "Within any group each team can play well and win on any given day. Many of the up and coming sides have shown a great deal of improvement in the last few years, which has helped to strengthen women`s cricket internationally," she added. IANS