Women’s T20 WC: Australia beat England to win 7th title
Australian team proved its absolute supremacy in the women’s game, winning an unprecedented seventh T20 World Cup title after making short work of hosts England by seven wickets in the final here on Sunday.
Among the greatest sporting outfits across all sports, the Southern Stars made a mockery of a record chase of 151 runs, completing the formalities in only 17.1 overs with Sophie Molineux winning her first ICC title as skipper.
Young Phoebe Litchfield (48 off 35 balls), possibly the best batter among the younger crop in women’s cricket, stitched a 100-run stand with veteran Beth Mooney (64 off 49 balls) that basically decimated an English attack, which had to defend a total that was at least 25 runs sub-par on a decent batting track.
Their century stand came off just 69 balls — a marker why Australian women are a few country miles ahead of other teams in terms of skill and quality.
Litchfield, with superb hand-eye co-ordination, muscled her way to six fours and two sixes while Mooney’s precision and penchant for rotating the strike left the Charlotte Edwards-coached side absolutely clueless.
At the halfway stage, Australia had raced to 100 and it was a mere formality with the asking rate dropping down to less than run a ball.
The best shot came out of Litchfield’s closet when the victory seemed like a formality. Left-arm spinner Linsey Smith bowled one outside the left-hander’s off-stump trying to keep it out of her hitting arc. Litchfield quickly got into a position where she played the reverse slog sweep with the ball sailing over backward point for a six.
Mooney wasn’t one to be left behind as she lofted Sophie Ecclestone inside out over extra cover and then completed her fifty off just 38 balls, keeping her superb record in ICC finals intact. She averages 90 whenever Mooney batted in an ICC final (T20I and ODI) for the Southern Stars. Also, this was the first time she was dismissed in a T20 World Cup final.
Earlier, skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt scored a gritty half-century but Australian bowling unit displayed a lot of discipline to restrict hosts, England to a sub-par 150 for 4 in the stipulated 20 overs.
Southern Stars skipper Sophie Molineux’s decision to bowl first was completely vindicated by her bowling unit, which kept the England batters under tight leash. And that too without the world’s greatest woman all-rounder, Ellyse Perry, rolling her arms due to an injury.
Had Sciver-Brunt (58 not out off 53 balls) and Freya Kemp (44 not out off 28 balls) not added 80 runs for the fifth wicket, England wouldn’t have reached the respectable figure of 150-plus. The England bowlers did have at least some chance to fight.
Sciver-Brunt struck five fours while Kemp hit four boundaries and a maximum.
The domination of the Australian bowlers could be understood from the simple statistic -- only two sixes were hit by English women during the course of 20 overs. Alice Capsey hit one and Kemp, who gave the innings some push towards the end, struck the other off Molineux.
However, one needs to factor in that the Australian spinners Molineux (1/32) and Georgia Wareham (0/9 in 2 overs) were on the point while Kim Garth and Annabel Sutherland were also tight with their lines, taking the pace off the deliveries.
