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Australian coach Shelley Nitschke lauded the 29-year-old as a “big game player” after her stunning haul of 7-18 against South Africa continued the team’s unbeaten run in India, setting up a semi-final showdown with the hosts on Thursday. King’s figures were the best ever at a women’s ODI World Cup, catapulted her to the top of the wicket-taking table at the tournament and put her name on the tips of everyone’s tongue as the business end approaches. “I think she’s a big-game player and when she’s up and about, she brings a lot of energy to the team,” Nitschke said in the wake of King’s seven-wicket haul. “She obviously burst onto the scene a couple of years ago and had a really strong Ashes for us and has continued to perform, particularly in this format. “So fantastic to see her out there tonight, still performing for us in the middle of a World Cup and a big game.” Nitschke said continued, daily improvement remained the driving force for a team that had achieved so much but not won back-to-back ODI World Cups. That’s been key to King’s success, working on the basics to ensure she’s able to bowl her best no matter the conditions. “I think probably from the start of the year, maybe late last year, I felt like I’ve found a really nice rhythm in my bowling, and I’ve tried to be really consistent in the length that I want to be bowling and being really consistent with my stock ball, that’s been a focus for me,” King said following Saturday’s game. “I love ODI cricket because it’s the best format, and for it to come out in a World Cup as well is pretty special. “I just think as a whole bowling group throughout the tournament, we’ve been pretty relentless, and we’ve got ourselves back into games. “The word that I’ve been using for probably the last 12 months, and people are probably getting sick of it, is it’s fizzing out. “As a leg-spinner, to feel that snap out of the wrist, that’s what I’ve been working on, and hopefully, long may it continue.” King knows things won’t always go her way either, despite the “perception” Indian wickets would help her out. “People can get caught in the perception that Indian wickets will spin a lot,” she said. “We saw in the series before the World Cup, they were really hard to bowl on and it was high scoring. When you play white-ball cricket in India, and we’ve played a lot, we’ve learned some wickets will offer more than others. “My job is to try and extract as much as I can, whether there’s something or nothing. I don’t try and reinvent the wheel when I bowl leg-spin. Going in to the semi-finals it might be different … I won’t be changing too much.” Australia will take on India amid a 15-game winning streak, including three wins against their opponents before the tournament. Nitschke said constant learning enabled the Aussies to keep winning, and would be at the heart of a World Cup triumph. “I think the players are always challenging themselves and wanting to get better. We’re trying to keep everything consistent but keep it fresh at the same time,” she said. “So, there’s a nice balance there. But I think there’s a culture of wanting to continually improve, and that’s something that we pride ourselves on and making sure that we just keep pushing and getting better, regardless of what result we’ve had that comes before. “So, I think it’s just the players are hungry to continue to improve.”
