Women’s World T20 2018: Final, Review - Ashleigh Gardener propels Australia to lift the title for the fourth time

The Australian Women team undoubtedly is one of the strongest T20I teams. They have proven their mettle yet again in the Women’s World T20 2018. The side made it to the final of the tournament for the fifth time and has now won the title for the fourth time. They defeated England in the final by eight wickets after the bowlers restricted the opposition to a low score in the first innings.

The Aussies earlier won the tournament on three consecutive occasions between 2010 and 2014. It was yet another disappointing final for the Brits in the World T20. After being crowned the champions in 2009, they made it to the title clash thrice. They faced Australia on all the three occasions and didn’t get over the line even once. Also, this match witnessed Ellyse Perry becoming only the second cricketer to get to 100 T20I wickets.

Extremely disappointing batting show from England

Things didn’t go as per the plans after England won the toss and elected to bat first. They kept losing wickets one after the other. The top-order batsmen suffered a rare failure and the middle-order just seemed to be too fragile. Danielle Wyatt was the best performer with 43 off 37 balls. Skipper Heather Knight got 25 and no one else reached the double figures.

It would have been even worse for England had the Australians taken all the catches on the field. Ashleigh Gardener picked three wickets in her quota of four overs. Georgia Wareham and Megan Schutt backed her up well with two wickets each while Perry picked one. The Brits were bowled out within 20 overs for just 105 runs.

Gardener, Lanning help Australia accomplish the chase

Alyssa Healy, who had a dream run in the tournament scored 22 off 20 balls in the chase. This turned out to be her lowest score in this edition of the World T20. Moreover, her partner, Beth Mooney also got out cheaply for just 14 runs. With Australia down 44/2, England might have felt that they had an outside chance of winning this encounter.

However, Gardener and Meg Lanning spoilt their plans. While the former was unbeaten on 33 off 26, the latter crawled her way to 28 off 30 balls and played some cautious cricket. The Aussies gunned the target down in 15.1 overs to lift the title. Gardener was the ‘Player of the Match’ while Alyssa Healy was awarded the ‘Player of the series’.

Brief Scores:

ENG-W: 105/10 in 19.4 overs (Danielle Wyatt 43, Heather Knight 25, Ashleigh Gardener 3/22)

AUS-W: 106/2  in 15.1 overs (Ashleigh Gardener 33*, Meg Lanning 28*, Sophie Ecclestone 1/12)

Result: Australia Women won by 8 wickets.

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