Source : the age
Men at Work’s Land Down Under rang out at Lord’s as Australia deservedly returned to the top of the world, with a T20 final hammering of an England side that will always wonder about a timid batting display in the decider.
Ellyse Perry was at the crease with Ash Gardner for the winning runs, which arrived with a whopping 17 balls and seven wickets to spare. Perry now has nine world titles plus a Commonwealth Games gold to her credit, and Australia have seven T20 World Cups from eight finals.
While this was not a great finale in terms of spectacle, Australia re-proved themselves a great team by dominating from the start.
The seasoned Beth Mooney won the match award for her perfectly-paced 64 from 49 balls, while Phoebe Litchfield shone in her first final with 48 off 35 and the only two sixes of the chase.
But the game was won largely with the ball and in the field, as captain Sophie Molineux marshalled her troops expertly to prevent England from ever gaining much momentum with the bat after they were sent in.
In a career that has been blighted by injuries, Molineux was a bold choice to replace Alyssa Healy as captain. After she missed numerous games early on, she admitted that there had been doubts not only outside the team, but also within it.
Following semi-final defeats in 2024 and last year, this was a resounding vindication of the path set by Molineux and coach Shelley Nitschke.
“It’s been a whirlwind, when I took over it was a bit messy at the start to be fair, captaining a couple of games and getting injured, shock,” Molineux said. “There was a few doubts internally, a few doubts externally, but what I’ve learned is you just have to keep believing. I’m incredibly lucky that people believed in me, and I believe in this team and this group. It’s really satisfying.
“When I did miss those games at the start of the summer after just being announced captain, it probably made me feel like it might not work out. But I just think I’m so incredibly lucky with the support I’ve had, not over just the last six months, but it’s been 10 years in this team.
“The group have been incredible in terms of being open to anything and being flexible. We’ve grown and evolved more in the last six months than I’ve ever seen. So I’m extremely proud.”
Swing bowler Kim Garth and 20-year-old left-armer Lucy Hamilton shared seven overs between them for a mere 39 runs while claiming a wicket apiece. From 2-32 then 4-70, England were never able to impose themselves.
England skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt is one of the most destructive batters in the game, but under the unrelenting spotlight of a Lord’s final and in the face of those early wickets, she found herself playing without anything like her best attacking intent.
Her stand of 80 was ultimately dominated by Freya Kemp, who clipped her way to 44 from 28 balls, which was much closer to the strike rate that Sciver-Brunt (58, 53 balls) might have expected to manage.
“We were restricted heavily by a really dominating bowling attack who’ve been really successful throughout the tournament,” she said. “I could’ve tried to take on the game a bit earlier, but I wasn’t finding the wicket that easy, to be honest.
“I would’ve liked to have a lot higher strike rate, after hitting my first ball for four. That wasn’t my intention, I wanted to play through the innings yes, but be a little freer in trying to find the boundary. In my head it didn’t feel that easy for people to come in and start hitting boundaries straight away.”
That, in essence, is where the final was won and lost. England have had a fine tournament to advance to the big day, but they have never had quite the same depth of talent as Australia: Sciver-Brunt knew that.
By contrast, Australia’s chase was characterised by fearless aggression from the moment Georgia Voll creamed a first ball boundary, in the knowledge that few sides in history have boasted a deeper batting lineup than this one.
England had one particularly sour moment when Sophie Ecclestone was denied a return catch off Perry, but by then the game was well and truly decided.
Australia’s victory can be summed up by the quality of the cricketers on the bench. Spinner Alana King was the player of the last Ashes series, but here her only delivery was that of champagne to her celebrating teammates. The likes of Tahlia McGrath, Grace Harris and Megan Schutt would walk into any other national side.
“To get it done like that with the bat, it was clinical,” Molineux said. “When you’ve got so much skill, the danger is you can be a bit insular and chase runs and wickets. There’s none of that in this team. The way we’ve played this tournament reflected that.
“It’s been six months of really deliberate conversations and training to prepare us. I feel like today was a moment in time for cricket. To be at the home of cricket, there were 30,000 people here. Today was really special – to sing the national anthem in front of a packed Lord’s ground, we’ll never forget that.
“We don’t think we’ve reached any ceilings yet. This team has generational talent, from Lucy Hamilton to Beth Mooney and Ellyse Perry. It’s been the most amazing day.”
Six years ago, Molineux had been arguably the most ebullient celebrator among the Australian players who joined Katie Perry on stage after winning the T20 Cup final at the MCG. This time she joked about maturity.
“Clean my teeth and go to bed in the next hour or so,” she quipped. “I feel incredibly grateful playing cricket for a living with some of my best mates, and to experience a day like today and walk away a World Cup champion, you’ve got to celebrate it.
“I’m not sure I’ll be leading the charge, I think I’ve grown up a little bit. But I’m sure everyone will have a lot of fun.”
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Daniel Brettig is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via X.
