Sydney Sixers all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner says the Sydney Sixers need to win all their remaining games, starting with Thursday's clash against the Brisbane Heat, to reach the WBBL finals.
The Sixers are locked in a four-way struggle with the Heat, Melbourne Renegades and Perth Scorchers for the two final play-off places with the Sydney Thunder and Adelaide Strikers appearing to have locked up two of the semi-final spots.
"The mindset we want to have is that we need to win every single game and I think that if we have that mindset we should be fine," Gardner said. "We're definitely ready to beat Brisbane Heat and I think we know ways to beat them, and I think we're just in a really good mindset at the moment going forward."
The Sixers will face an in-form Beth Mooney on Thursday. Gardner says the Sixers have a plan for her Australian teammate, but she was full of praise for the dangerous batter.
"She's a simple player that we know how to bowl to and we know how to get her out, so hopefully just sticking to simple plans and that will work hopefully," Gardner said.
"I'm pretty good friends with her and I think that as a cricketer she's really professional. I think the way that she trains and goes about her cricket is like an ideal athlete."
Gardner, who started the season with an opening-day century, will now look to work on her own batting after going through a tough patch.
"I started ideally and I think ever since then I've obviously been trying to do the same thing," Gardner said.
"I'm pretty disappointed in the way I have batted in the last few games, but I've still got five more games to obviously improve so hopefully within these next five games I can put another really good performance on the board."
The 20-year-old has put her recent batting performances down to a mixture of poor shot choice and other teams working out her strengths and weaknesses.
"I guess teams know where to bowl to me these days and know what my weaknesses and my strengths are, so they obviously try to pinpoint where they want to bowl to me and hopefully get it out of my slot so I can't score boundaries as freely," she said.
"I think that teams start to do their research and obviously know their players really well so I think that's what most teams have been doing for me."
