Women’s T20 World Cup – “Australia women win the Women’s T20 Final”

BY: KAYLA KARIM 

The Australian women have won the World T20 Women’s Championship. They beat the English women by eight wickets at Sir Vivian Richard’s Stadium in North Sound, Antigua.

In the 16-day tournament, 23 games were played in Guyana, St. Lucia and the finals being held in Antigua.

Australia suffered from a tough loss against India last week, prior to the finals against England but prevailed against the West Indies to book their ticket to St. Lucia.

It was a rematch of the 2016 final, where West Indies won by eight wickets to win their first WT20 trophy. However, the Aussie women avenged that win this time around. The West Indies lost two wickets in the semi-final game in the opening three overs and were bowled out for 21 in 17.2 overs. Australia’s Alyssa Healy scored for Australia with 46 off 39 balls for 142-5.

West Indies’ captain Stephanie Taylor said that the team “came into this game with a lot of confidence” but failed to deliver. She also thanked the fans and the host crowd for the great atmosphere.

Two years ago, in the World Twenty20 semi-final in Delhi saw the same matchup in this year’s final, where England also lost against Australia. This is Australia’s fourth World T20 trophy, after winning in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

Player of the match, Australia’s Ash Gardner’s three wickets, and big hitting helped steer Australia to the eight-wicket win. She ensured the win with two sixes with 29 balls to spare. Gardner, the top performer for Australia commented that the Aussie women had “a lot of nerves but also a lot of confidence” going into the final game.

Twenty-one-year-old Ash Gardner played for Australia in the Women’s Ashes tournament earlier this year before showing up for the World Twenty20 tournament. Her offensive impact on the final helped to lead Australia to victory.

Alyssa Healy was another strong and important key for Australia’s win. Healy was referred to as the “Player of the Tournament” due to her outstanding efforts and play over the course of the two weeks. The 28-year-old had a memorable tournament, finishing as the top scorer with 225 runs in 5 innings, especially in the final game, giving her team a good start hitting 22 off 20, which had four fours in it.

Healy added 22 runs to her tournament tally bowled by Sophie Ecclestone in the fifth over. Sitting at 44-2, Australia seemed in control of the situation. Captain Meg Lanning praised her teammate saying that Healy put in “a lot of hard work” in order to get herself in shape in preparation for this tournament. Lanning also mentions that Healy “led the charge”. Healy also spoke highly about her team sharing in an interview after the tournament that the girls “played beautifully” and that she was “really proud” of the team’s performance.

Although England was successful for the majority of the tournament, they couldn’t finish off strong enough in the final. Their most impressive win was in the semi-final, where they bypassed India for 112 and batted to win by eight wickets. Their youngsters stepped up and performed well leaving the tournament on a positive note. Kristie Gordon made her England debut against Bangladesh taking a total of eight wickets – the highest wicket-taker. Sophie Ecclestone also played an impressive tournament with five wickets and Amy Jones scored 107 runs including a half-century against India in the semi-final. 

Amy Jones and Natalie Scriver both recorded a half-century in the Semi-Final win over India. Jones secured the winning runs with her team member Natalie who put in a 92-run. England’s bowlers were excellent but the batters did not convince as well as expected, with Tammy Beaumont not in the best form. Heather Knight commented on the loss admitting that the team lost wickets at a key time as well as lacked momentum. Knight applauded the fans saying that they were their source of support.

The next Women’s Twenty20 tournament will be hosted by Australia in 2020. This tournament is played every two years where matches will be played over six different venues between the end of February 2020 and the beginning of March 2020.