Wellington, March 29 : Australia’s Ellyse Perry has been ruled out of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup semi-final, with the all-rounder unable to recover from back spasm in time for the knockout match against West Indies on March 30. Australia captain Meg Lanning on Tuesday confirmed the setback at her pre-match press conference. “Unfortunately she (Perry) just ran out of time to prove her fitness,” Lanning said. “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.” However, Lanning is hopeful that Perry could be fit for the final in Christchurch, provided Australia advance to Sunday’s summit clash against the winner of second semi-final between England and South Africa. “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 focused 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.” The 31-year-old faced throwdowns in the nets on Monday but didn’t bowl or field. This is the second time that Perry will watch Australia’s semi-final from the sidelines, having previously missed her team’s T20 World Cup 2020 knockout match after tearing her hamstring from the bone. Perry missed Australia’s final round-robin match of the ODI World Cup 2022 against Bangladesh on March 25. She was off the field for the majority of Australia’s fielding innings against South Africa on March 22 due to back soreness.
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