It does take a while to get used to: Ash Gardner on noisy crowds in India

Mumbai, Dec 20 (PTI) Australian all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner is getting used to the noise generated by the fanatical fans of Indian cricket in the ongoing T20 series against the hosts and feels the loud roars can put extra pressure on the away team even if it is doing well in the middle.

Gardner has contributed with both bat and ball to help Australia take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five match series. The final T20 will be played on Tuesday night.

“It does take quite a while to get used to,” she told the ‘100% cricket’ podcast.

“Sometimes you feel like you are under the pump because obviously the crowd isn’t on your side, so they are hitting dots and there’s ones and twos that you actually think are boundaries being hit or they are right on top of the game.

“So we try to take the emotion out of that, knowing that they are going to be supporting the other side and being okay with that. So it’s probably not listening to the crowd too much even though obviously it is very loud.”

The Australian is also excited about the inaugural U-19 World Cup for women.

“We were actually talking about that the other day,” she said of a chat in her team camp in India.

“It was myself and (teammate) Heather Graham, who are at similar ages and we would have loved to have played in an U19 World Cup as we thought we would have been very good.

“But yeah, obviously it’s fantastic for those young players to have something to strive for (now).”

The age group event will be played in South Africa next month.