Australia vs England: Australia script a great escape, make fourth final on the trot

In pursuit of Australia’s 132, England were now 42 runs adrift with five overs remaining. They had seven wickets in hand but England’s middle order had looked brittle in this tournament. Two overs later, when Sarah Taylor reverse swept a pretty innocuous delivery from Farrel to keeper Elyssa Healy, England began to panic. They needed 30 runs from another 16 deliveries. On a slow pitch, the Aussies bowled tight lines and mixed their pace cleverly. Barring Katherine Brunt, none of the English batters managed to clear the infield. She smacked a six and four to bring the equation down to 17 off 10 deliveries. However, she would depart immediately and Australia, the three-time champions in World T20s, once again prevailed over their arch-rivals. In the high profile fixture, billed as the match of the tournament, England would fall agonisingly short of the finish line, bowing out by a mere five runs.

Ahead of the most the anticipated clash in the Women’s World T20 encounter, Australia captain Meg Lanning had said: “Their (England) openers have been prolific. But, if our fast bowlers can get them out early, their middle order will be tested”. She was pretty accurate in her assessment. England captain Charlotte Edwards, opener Tammy Beaumont and all-rounder Natalie Sciver were the only three batters at the top who have managed to make headway on the slow pitches in India. Despite winning all the four league games, England were not flawless. Chasing India’s paltry 91, they had almost fluffed their chances. Ditto against the West Indies, in which they hobbled off to a win the last ball of the innings. Heading into the tournament’s knock-outs, you sensed that the thrust of scoring once again fell on England’s top order.

The England openers did not disappoint. Both Edwards and Beaumont gave their side a brisk start, racing past the 50-run mark in just the seventh over. However, Edwards departs for a well compiled 31, in the final ball of the 10th over, the match was evenly poised with England at 1/67. Even when the experienced Sarah Taylor joined Beaumont, England had the game in their grasp. Taylor started off by clubbing Johansen for a six over extra cover. However, England kept losing wickets at crucial junctures to keep Australians in the hunt. In the seven overs following Edwards’ dismissal, they would add only 35 runs and lose 4 wickets. This was the period of the play which tilted the match in favour of Australia.

Earlier, Australia’s batting was like a mirror image to that of England. Like England, their openers led by Alyssa Healy and Elyse Villani got them off to a brisk start. Healy batted with assurance and punished England’s opening bowlers who erred in their line and looked pretty one-dimensional. The openers put on a 41-run stand. However, the openers got out in the space of two overs. Skipper Lanning and Perry joined in the act and two kept the scoreboard ticking along. Lanning’s play especially in the region between the covers and mid-off region was impeccable. Between the 10th over and the 16th, Australia collected 44 crucial runs, with their captain in sight of a half-century. Unlike the English batters, who were guilty of bringing out the adventurous T20 strokes like the paddle shots and the reverse sweeps, the Aussies adopted a more orthodox approach, playing with a straight bat, and scoring runs in the ‘V’. The slower England bowlers would put a brake on the Aussie scoring, especially towards the fag end of the innings. The Aussies found it difficult to clear the boundaries, and managed to add only 22 runs in the final four overs.

Lanning’s team now faces the winner of the New Zealand-West Indies tie in the final at the Eden Gardens on April 3. Incidentally, New Zealand is the only team to have defeated them at the World T20. Lanning, however, conceded her team has the confidence of doing well against both the teams. “We don’t mind facing either of them. New Zealand have done well and the West Indies are capable of putting 160 on the board. It should be a good match and we will be ready for either of them,” she added.

Brief scores: Australia 132/6 (Meg Lanning 55, Alyssa Healy 25; Natalie Sciver 2/22, Laura Marsh 1/18) beat England 127/7 (Charlotte Edwards 31, Tammy Beaumont 32, Sarah Taylor 21; Megan Schutt 2/15) by 5 runs.