Ellyse Perry ruled out of World Cup 2022 semis with back spasms

Australia suffered a massive blow before the semis as their leading all-rounder Ellyse Perry was ruled out of the match with back spasms. Perry had missed Australia's last match in the league stage against Bangladesh after going off the field against South Africa while fielding, a match where she didn't come out to bat. Australia went on to win both the matches to finish the group stage unbeaten and top the standings. Australia face West Indies, who finished fourth in the group stage, in the first semi-final on Wednesday at the Basin Reserve in Wellington.



"Unfortunately she just ran out of time to prove her fitness," Meg Lanning, Australia's captain, said in the pre-match presser.



"We'll keep assessing her if we are to progress in the tournament so it's 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."



Perry is currently ranked number 1 in the ICC's all-rounder rankings and no. 8 in the ICC's bowler rankings. After being dropped from the the team during the T20 leg of the Ashes, Perry has been in good form since her return. She has also played a crucial role for Australia in this World Cup, opening the bowling and scoring crucial runs in the middle order from the no. 4 position mostly. She has also won two Player of the Match awards in this edition already, including the group stage match against the West Indies.



Australia replaced Perry with pace bowler Darcie Brown, who has been impressive in her first World cup campaign, in the game against Bangladesh and might opt to go in with an unchanged XI in the semis.



Perry has not yet been ruled of a potential final and Australia are monitoring her progress and recovery. Perry had also missed the knockout stages of the last World Cup Australia took part in, the T20 version in 2020.



"She hasn't done a lot (of training) over the past week to be fair," Lanning said. "She batted a little in the nets yesterday and felt ok but wasn't in a position to perform at the level needed tomorrow.



"That's why we've made the call today. 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. I'm sure there's work going on in the background to get her up to play if we were to get through."