Aus v Eng Women’s World T20 Review: Skipper Meg Lanning takes Australia to the finals

The Australia Women’s team put on a wonderful all-round show to beat England women’s team closely by 5 runs to advance to the finals of the Women’s World T20. Skipper Meg Lanning, with her match –defining half-century, starred for the Australians.

After being put into bat by England captain Charlotte Edwards, Australia rode on skipper Meg Lanning’s (55 from 50 balls) stroke filled half century and posted a challenging 132/6 in 20 overs. Australia started steadily with openers Alyssa Healy (25 from 15 balls) and Elyse Villani (19 from 20 balls) stitching a 41 run stand for the first wicket. But both the openers lost their wickets in back to back overs leaving the team at 50 for 2 after 7 overs.

But, Elyse Perry and Meg Lanning combined together and took things under control with a well compiled 36 run stand before Perry lost her wicket to medium pacer Natalie Schiver in the 14th over. After Perry’s fall, Lanning took most of the strike and scored the majority of runs. Soon she reached 8th T20I fifty off 45 balls.

But, she lost her wicket in the penultimate over after getting run out by Schiver while trying to take a quick double. The final yield after her departure yielded only 5 run at the cost of two more wickets. But, consequently, Australia Women still manage a decent total on the board.

The English women had a good start with Charlotte Edwards and Tammy Beaumont putting together a good 67 runs stand. The pair batted for the first half of the chase and could be separate only in the 10 over when the English skipper lost her wicket to Kristen Beams.

Sarah Taylor and Beaumont batted well for a brief time before the latter was caught by Meg Lanning off Megan Scutt’s bowling. The team saw a slump from this stage. Natalie Schiver and Heather Knight lost their wicket pretty quickly. Schiver was cleaned up by Elyse Perry for a duck in the over following Beaumont’s dismissal whereas Knight was dismissed in the 17th over by Erin Osborne after she was caught at long on by Elyse Villani. The chasing efforts suffered a big dent when Sarah Taylor also was caught behind in the subsequent over. The match was still clinging in favor of both the team.

But, the Australians gained an upper hand in the game and almost sealed the game in their favor after Megan Schutt affected two dismissals in the penultimate over. She clean bowled Katherine Brunt off the third delivery and then brilliant ran out Jenny Gunn at the wicket keeper end. 13 runs were needed off the last over for England to win but Lydia Greenway and Daniel Wyatt could manage only 8 runs off Rene Farrell’s over, thus losing the match.

With this win, the Australian Women’s have reached their fourth straight finals of the World T20.

Brief Scores:

Australia Women: 132/6 in 20 overs (Meg Lanning 55; Natalie Schiver 2/22)

England Women: 127/7 in 20 overs (Tammy Beaumont 32; Megan Schutt 2/15)

Player of the Match: Meg Lanning