There are some problems that have left humanity stumped for the longest of time. To the list that includes cold fusion, Fermat's Last Theorem and why toast always lands buttered-side down, we can add another: how to beat Australia Women in an ODI?
There is a working hypothesis that it can be done, but the results are almost impossible to reproduce in laboratory conditions. Over the last five-and-a-bit years, Australia have played 58 times in the format, and won 52 of them. Go back further, to the start of the 2017 World Cup, and the figure is P87 W78, which includes their world-record winning streak of 26 ODIs in a row.
Such is their level of dominance that it even puts the Australia Men's team of the 2000s in the shade. To take a random sample, between the start of the 2003 World Cup (which they won) and the end of the 2007 World Cup (which they won), Ricky Ponting's side played 136 ODIs, winning 102 and losing 28.
Very impressive, but a win/loss ratio of 9.750 it isn't.
For this Australia Women's team, defeat is a once-a-year event - and they've already had their one scheduled blip for 2025.
The losses are cosmic outliers, little more than confirmation of the randomness of the universe. They either come via Spandex-tight margins - three runs, two wickets, two wickets - or require inspirational performances from the opposition's talisman: Harmanpreet Kaur in Derby; Nat Sciver-Brunt in Taunton; Marizanne Kapp in North Sydney; Smriti Mandhana in New Chandigarh.
In World Cups, the permutations become even more head-scratchingly confounding. Since their defeat in the semi-final of the 2017 edition, Australia have won 15 ODI World Cup games on the bounce. They waltzed through the tournament unbeaten in 2022, and are on track to do so again after six wins from seven in the group stage.
The one side to escape during that run was Sri Lanka, who abandoned science and invoked the unquenchable thirst of the Colombo rain gods. That or they capitalised on some truly abysmal scheduling during the monsoon, but it amounts to the same thing.
Stopping the irresistible force
Back in the dark ages, learned folk spent much of their time trying to discover a substance that could turn base metal into gold. You would too, right? If it were in any way real. For the alchemists of antiquity, read the analysts of today anxiously flicking through their data points whenever Australia occupy the opposition dressing room.
Signs of weakness are few and far between. When they slipped to 76 for 7 in their group game against Pakistan, one of the great World Cup upsets was in the offing. Instead, Beth Mooney - who looks, and plays, like she could be one of Bradman's Invincibles - made a granite-hewn hundred as part of a century stand for the ninth wicket. Australia ended up winning by 107 runs.
India might have felt pretty pleased with themselves after posting 330 (at the time their highest-ever World Cup total) in Visakhapatnam; Alyssa Healy responded with a searing 142 off 107 balls to set up a three-wicket win. England must have thought they were in with a sniff when reducing Australia to 68 for 4 chasing 245; Annabel Sutherland and Ash Gardner disabused them of this notion with an unbroken 180-run stand.
The England game finished with Gardner blocking balls in order to try and get Sutherland to her hundred, which is a pretty brutal summation of where it had got to as a contest.
Time and again, teams have scrapped and sweated over the magic formula that will help them get one over on the canary-yellow juggernaut. Almost without exception, every time they hold their discovery up to the light, it turns out to be fool's gold.
Can a new champion emerge?
We at ESPNcricinfo decided to take up the challenge, too. After crunching the numbers, consulting the experts and triangulating every possible weakness, we came up with this devastating statistic: since the start of 2024, between overs ten and 20, Australia have lost the third-most wickets among all teams (33). At this World Cup, the tally reads nine, behind only South Africa and Pakistan.
Read it again and weep, sisters.
Okay, you're saying you need more? Well, Ellyse Perry is averaging 24.50 for the tournament. Not so flashy, eh. Similarly, new-ball stalwart Kim Garth has only taken four wickets in five matches - three of which came during Pakistan's capitulation. And in the field, they produced a distinctly un-Aussie performance when shelling six chances against Bangladesh (although, yes, they still went on to win by ten wickets).
In case it wasn't already clear, for the three other teams still in with a theoretical chance of winning this World Cup, the omens are not good. But for those of you who made it this far, here's our three-point plan to stopping Australia from winning this World Cup:
Be India. Handy news for Australia's semi-final opponents. India's record of four ODI wins over Australia in the last ten years is as good as anyone's - and, crucially, that includes being the last side to actually beat them at a World Cup. They are the host nation, they are captained by the hero of Derby, and they ran Australia the closest in the group stage.
Make sure someone scores a hundred. Preferably a big one, like Harmanpreet's Derby piece de resistance. Since the start of the 2017 World Cup, 13 individual centuries have been scored against Australia; three times in a winning cause. That's nearly a 25% chance, people! Although Sciver-Brunt (four hundreds, including 148 not out in the 2022 World Cup final, only one of which came in a victory) can tell you first-hand, it's no guarantee.
Beware the legspinner. Alana King is very good, as figures of 7 for 18 - the first seven-wicket haul at Women's World Cups - in her last outing attest. Top tip: go back and look at the footage of how South Africa played her. Then do the opposite.
If none of the above works, then you're best off building a death ray and hoping that will somehow fly with the ICC playing regulations. Good luck!