Australia women's captain Meg Lanning brings teammate Alyssa Healy for the toss

During the first T20I between Australia Women and Sri Lanka Women, a really interesting incident took place. For the coin toss, the Aussie captain tried something extremely cheeky and that actually turned out to work in her favour. Meg Lanning has had a poor coin toss record for a long while now. Thus, to turn things around, she decided to tag along with her a ‘specialist coin tosser’.

Wicket-keeper batter Alyssa Healy accompanied her for the toss and did the honours. This strange move worked out and Australia managed to win the toss after which they opted to bat first. When asked about the same, Meg Lanning revealed that she’s got a pretty bad record with the coin toss. Thus, to try and change things, she decided to bring Alyssa with her.

I’m not sure if you’ve heard but I’ve got a pretty bad record with the coin toss

“I’m not sure if you’ve heard but I’ve got a pretty bad record with the coin toss. So Alyssa Healy’s been talking herself up and she’s delivered,” Lanning told Andy Maher during the toss. Australia Women made the most of this toss that they won. Openers Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney took the team off to a flyer scoring at almost 12 runs an over in the powerplay.

After racing her way through to 43 from only 21 balls, Alyssa Healy got out. However, Beth Mooney kept going strong from the other end. Even though she lost another partner in the form of Meg Lanning for 1 run, she continued playing aggressive cricket. In the process, she even brought up her century. After mustering 113 from 61 balls, she got out. Ashleigh Gardener provided the team with the final impetus with a 27-ball 49. Thus, the Southern Stars managed to put up a massive 217/4 on the board in 20 overs.

For Sri Lanka, the chase was all about skipper Chamari Athapaththu. She was the lone warrior for her team and hardly found any support from the others. Athapaththu scored 113 runs off 66 balls before she got out. The next highest score was only 16 by Hansima Karunaratne. Sri Lanka only got 176/7 in 20 overs and lost the game by 41 runs.

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