Finally, the long wait for ICC T20 Women’s World Champions came to an end as Australia Women lift the cup for the fifth time. Alyssa Healy, Beth Mooney, Megan Schutt, and Jess Jonassen are the stars of the match. Defending champions Australia Women team outclassed First-time finalists India Women team in the final match at Melbourne cricket stadium on March 8.
Even though India Women was the unbeaten team in the series with top place in the list and defeated the defending champions in the opener, they couldn’t stop them hitting the boundaries and making such a big target.
Australia Women Batting
Australia women won the toss and opted to bat first. Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney started the match with a power-packed performance. They led the team with half-centuries each. Both Healy and Mooney led the team to score 115 when Alyssa Healy dismissed in the 12th over. Healy got out with an impressive strike rate of 192.31 which has 7*4 and 5*6. But Beth Mooney continued her battle even though the non-strikers didn’t give a good partnership and ended at 78* off 58 balls with a strike rate of 144.44 consisting of 10*4. At the end of first innings, Australia’s women score was 184-4 in 20 overs.
India Women Bowling
If we look at the previous matches in this series, the India women team has its key strength in bowling with Poonam Yadav leading wicket-taker. But she couldn’t stop Healy and Mooney making the boundaries and maintained an average economy of 7.5.
India Women Batting
Chasing the challenging target, Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana entered the ground. But India team suffered from the first dismissal of the teen sensation of the series Shafali Verma with only 2 runs in 3 balls. Then wickets started falling down one after another with superb bowling from Megan Schutt and Jess Jonassen. To add to Indian team distress wicketkeeper Taniya Bhatia got retired hurt after getting hit on the helmet during 2nd over. India women with poor strike rate and poor scores ended at 99-10 in 19.1 overs.
Australia Women Bowling
Australia women didn’t just give India women the challenging score but also stopped them chasing it. Megan Schutt with 4-18, Jess Jonassen with 3-20 and other bowlers with one wicket each bundled India women team at 99.
