Meg Lanning’s champion Australian cricketers have won another global crown, successfully defending their women’s T20 World Cup title with an emphatic 19- run victory over hosts South Africa in Cape Town.
Player of the Tournament Ashleigh Gardner delivered the stand-out all-round performance on the balmy afternoon in front of a sell-out crowd of 13,000 to hand Lanning a memorable win in her 100th T20I as captain.
Gardner first helped propel Australia with her 21-ball 29 and then defended 26 off the game’s final over to finish with 4-0-20-1 and ensure her side completed a three-peat in 20-over World Cups.
Player of the match Beth Mooney’s unbeaten 53-ball 74 did most to put the pressure on the South Africans in their first-ever World Cup final appearance on Sunday as the Australians, opting to bat, amassed 6-156 at Newlands.
Then Lanning’s team bowled and fielded with clinical efficiency to largely always stay in control, as they ended up restricting the Proteas to 6-137 to lift the T20 global title for the third time in a row and the sixth time in the last seven editions.
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Among a fine combined effort from the Australian bowlers, Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown and Jess Jonassen also each took a key wicket as the Australians won a 13th world title in all in white-ball cricket.
Australia celebrate their ICC Women’s T20 World Cup triumph. (Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
Australia didn’t notch up the victory at a canter, though. Laura Wolvaardt’s 48-ball 61 and Shabnim Ismail’s 4-1-26-2 inspired romantic hopes of an historic win for the first-time World Cup finalists South Africa.
Opener Wolvaardt had put the hosts within 48 runs of a win with her third straight fifty that anchored a 35-ball 55 partnership with Chloe Tryon.
But Schutt trapped Wolvaardt lbw in 17th over, leaving too much to do for Tryon, who fell for 25 off 23.
Earlier, Mooney’s quickfire 15-ball 33 stand with No.6 Ellyse Perry (seven off 5 balls) ensured the defending champions scored 46 in the death overs.
The left-handed opener Mooney’s clutch innings, reminiscent of her match-winning fifties in the finals of the 2020 T20 World Cup, the 2022 ODI World Cup and the Commonwealth Games final, again proved indispensable.
But, at one point, she was going so slowly, she admitted: “I actually asked one of the girls who ran out if she could ask Shell (head coach Shelley Nitschke) if she wants to retire me because I was hitting it that bad!
“That didn’t quite make it to Shell … but it just goes to show if you hang in there long enough and get the pace of the wicket…
“I probably didn’t have a great plan through the middle there, stepping across and trying to hit it too square but once I stayed a bit still and hit a bit straighter, it wasn’t too bad.”
The Australian innings ended with a double-wicket 20th over from Ismail, who became the leading wicket-taker in women’s T20 World Cup history with her 42nd strike in the tournament.
Gardner, promoted to Lanning’s usual No.3 slot, had marshalled Australia from 1-36 in the powerplay after Alyssa Healy had been dismissed for a 20-ball 18 to double that run tally by the halfway mark.
Gardner’s 41-ball 46-run second-wicket stand with Mooney, broke upon the introduction of Tryon as the 25-year-old holed out to long-off.
Tryon then took a superb catch at deep midwicket off a Lanning pull to reduce the opposition 4-122 with 17 balls left in the innings.
Australia amassed 34 off those deliveries. Mooney, who brought up her second successive half-century of this World Cup, off 44 balls, alone made 25 in that tally.
“People are looking out at us for what we do and how we go about it, so certainly it won’t last forever,” Mooney said of their title-winning spree.
“But we’ll enjoy it for as long as we can and, hopefully, we can keep piling up those trophies and enjoying what’s great.”
Clear as mud
Guest
She's barely bowled all summer and had been tonked in the lead up games. so we made her bowl two vital overs at key time - and didn't let her bat. Sometimes we win despite ourselves I reckon.
Simoc
Roar Rookie
She was following the batters. They were stepping to leg so she bowled down leg. Hard to believe the batters let her get away with it. Next ball hold your stance and its a wide , one run, ball rebowled.
Simoc
Roar Rookie
With the ball, obviously. Hard to know why she didn't bat earlier. Harris didn't look up to it and she is a better bat than the rest after Lanning. Harris sent out to swing was prodding around like a gardener. Leave her till last 5 overs. But they won. Our bowlers were to good for them. The SA quick, Ishmail was clocked at 128kmh the same speed as NZ quick Wagner was bowling in Wellington today.
Kailash
Roar Rookie
Yeah, Harman will be having nightmares about that .
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Great work. Mooney super impressive skills in the second half of her innings. But you half to wonder about a contest where Ash Gardiner can dominate with the ball by bowling slow half trackers on leg stump.
Peter
Roar Rookie
Nice. What does Pez do with all her medals? Make a wind chime maybe. Midge and Lanning need to be moving their strike rates above 100 earlier in their innings come future T20Is. South Africa's had a winning run rate from overs 16-20. It was the 1-17 after the first 5 overs that was crucial for Oz.
VSSRAO
Roar Rookie
Congratulations women Australian cricket team! I wished for South African win but you have shown tremendous athleticism in the field!
Dennis Lupre
Roar Rookie
SA spent too much time praying and not enough time training for the big one. :boxing:
Clear as mud
Guest
which form did McGrath look out of? not batting i presume... 57 off 33 against SA with 10 4's after coming in at 3-40? that seems a lifetime ago but was actually only 8 days... somehow they contrived to give everyone a bat after that, but her. as my mum says and it does me head in, "go figure"?!
Clear as mud
Guest
i can name 50 off the top of my head. i am confident nobody knows more on here about WBBL and WNCL than me where they are missing out is a chance to excel in national colours. as the "golden generation" were gifted. there is nothing wrong self-evidently with where we are. just love to see us already planning for the next Golden Generation. (rather than safe mid-tier squad selections like Garth and Graham, and even the G Harris recall.) -- i also reckon some of the kids have or soon will surpass some of them but it's hard to change a winning team. as we know.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
In that list, you have 9 players under 30yo. We have years of them and when they go, if the kids haven't already surpassed them, the young kids now will be 23/24 and ready to go. Have you not been watching the state games and WBBL? There are over 30 kids who would not be out of place in this side right now. The programme is world's best practice.
Simoc
Guest
Great win to the girls. Thank goodness for Mooney. She toughed it out then flourished when deciding to hit straight. Noticeable that later SA batters couldn't hit the ball hard or find the boundaries. Tryon just couldn't get going or work Gardiner out. McGrath looked out of form. Looked to be a great jovial atmosphere at the ground.
Clear as mud
Guest
Form player. Player of the year. Lanning promoting Gardner and Harris then bringing herself in at the wrong time seemed weird. And then even putting Wareham ahead of McGrath - it was just weird I presumed she must have had a niggle - until Meg gave her not one but two overs at a key time, when McGrath had bowled two overs in the tournament and both had gone for 13 . Pez had already bowled an over for 5. (She only bowled 14 overs in the WBBL due to injury. She barely bowled in India and in the warmup games) As is often the case there is much that made no sense to me. But nobody else asks the questions because we keep winning and they are a great group.
Clear as mud
Guest
ah, no. Luus has played for Brisbane. Ismail, Kapp, Wolvaardt, Tryon, De Klerk and Bosch - they are teammates and friends with the Aussies. In australia, and in england, and now in india it was high praise delivered informally and amusingly. Sune Luus is great people.
Clear as mud
Guest
not quite right and they are not old but they are ageing and there is pretty much no new blood coming in - Brown and Litchfield the recent ones.
Clear as mud
Guest
the latter not the former Healy about to be 33 Moons 29 Ash about to be 26 Meg about to be 31 McGrath 27 Perry 32 Harris 29 Wolf 23 JJ 30 schutter 30 Darc about to be 20 King 27 Sutherland 21 Graham 26 Garth almost 27 there is nothing particularly wrong with the age structure. and they could all play for another 4 years. but it's THAT thing again... Healy debuted at 19 Mooney debuted at 22 Gardner debuted at 19 Lanning debuted at 18 Perry debuted at 16 McGrath debuted at 21 Harris debuted at 21 Wareham debuted at 19 Schutt debuted at 19 Brown debuted at 18 that's how you build a team, you get youth in and back them in. none of them were anywhere near finished products when they started their long careers. most of them can keep playing and all the long overdue financial rewards make it unlikely that anyone will retire. so it's going to have be the selectors that do the renewing, unless someone like Midge decides to just play franchise, maybe have babies, commentate, whatever. either that or we have a lost generation of young talent. or we have a bunch of players that debut in their mid-20s and we don't get that excitement of seeing a kid excel and mature over 10+ years - that we got with this current team.
Ace
Roar Rookie
Big girl..big hitter. Didn't understand it myself but with Mooney, Gardner and lanning I guess you would expect those three , and Healy, to soak up 20 overs
Clear as mud
Guest
i am still trying to work out how McGrath faced 1 ball in 2 matches despite flaying SA in the pool games?
Pop
Roar Rookie
It is an exceptional side. The selectors have blooded youth at the right time. So Rachael Haynes knew when she retired, the side was stable and still on the way up. Surely Beth Mooney is the best batter in women’s international cricket currently.
DTM
Roar Rookie
Well done to the whole squad. I thought they were 10-15 runs short but they proved their all round class. We are going to need a bigger trophy cabinet.