In February 2023, after Australia won their fourth consecutive world title, at Newlands, Beth Mooney was asked what advice she would give to a team who were trying to beat hers. She thought for a moment, then said: “Just don’t turn up. It’s too hard. Don’t bother going.” There can be no better summary of what England will be up against on Sunday when they face Australia in the final of the Women’s T20 World Cup at Lord’s.
Of course, other teams continued to turn up: South Africa triumphed over Australia in 2024’s semi-final, while India replicated the feat in the 50-over World Cup last year. But for a team with no silverware in their possession, Australia are pretty relaxed about life right now. On Thursday the team were spotted in the crowd at Wimbledon, Phoebe Litchfield leading an “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” chant. They will know very well that they are massive favourites to spoil England’s party on Sunday, after a flawless run in the group stages and a hammering of West Indies in Tuesday’s semi-final.
The laid-back vibe in the group has much to do with their new captain, Sophie Molineux, whose sense of fun is best illustrated by an incident from earlier in this World Cup. Australia, worn out after five hours on a bus travelling from Leeds to Southampton, had gathered for a mobility session. Suddenly in danced Molineux, dressed in a fluorescent pink leotard and yellow sweatbands, doing high kicks to the sound of Olivia Newton-John’s Physical. “Everyone had sore bellies from laughing,” Georgia Voll told cricket.com.au’s Diary Room podcast.
Molineux, a left-arm spinner, is Australia’s leading wicket-taker in this tournament, with 10 scalps, but their dominance has been a team effort: in a nation with an exhausting conveyor belt of talent, there is no room for bystanders. England have the heft of Danni Wyatt-Hodge and the calm heads of Nat Sciver-Brunt and Heather Knight to call on in a crisis; but also have a wicketkeeper who seems determined to plonk the ball straight into the hands of ring-fielders more often than not. It’s probably best not to even compare Amy Jones to Mooney, who can time the ball to perfection even with a twice-dislocated finger.
What hope, then, for England? One is familiarity, with the ground and with the conditions. Lord’s has an aura all of its own, and Australia, believe it or not, have never featured in a World Cup final there. By contrast, England’s three best batters at this tournament – Sciver-Brunt, Wyatt-Hodge and Knight – won a World Cup there nine years ago. Knight, former captain and now general manager of London Spirit, also won the Hundred at Lord’s in 2024.
“I like playing finals there,” Knight said. “Playing at Lord’s is always very special. It’s quite unique in terms of its dimensions and the slope, and the surface. A lot of us have played a decent amount of cricket there. Hopefully, that will be a good advantage.”
Another is that they are on England’s home turf. At their Oval semi-final on Thursday night, caught up in a whirlwind of emotion, the England players immediately ran over to the stands to share the winning moment with friends and family. “That’s the hugely special thing about a home World Cup,” Knight said. “You’re able to share these moments, and I know the girls are really enjoying it. There’s a lot of emotional parents, more emotional than the girls I think. They’ve been part of our journeys so it’ll be really special to share [a Lord’s final] with them.”
Do Australia perhaps have the psychological edge, after handing England a 16-0 Ashes whipping 18 months ago? Not according to Ellyse Perry, who reckons home conditions outweigh anything else: “They’re not playing in Australia with scary spiders and snakes now.”
Australia: Beth Mooney
With a decade of international experience the 32-year-old left-hander, pictured above, has cemented herself as one of Australia’s most consistent performers at the top of the order and also keeps wicket. She’s been integral to Australia’s dominant run so far in the World Cup, scoring an unbeaten half century in the semi-final. She scored 61 off 36 balls to draw level with Suzie Bates and Nat Sciver-Brunt for most career half-centuries in the tournament with eight.
Australia: Annabel Sutherland
Annabel Sutherland won back to back Belinda Clark awards in 2025 and 2026, the highest individual honour in Australian cricket. The pace-bowling allrounder offers power hitting lower in the order but a crucial ability to take wickets alongside bowling economy.
England: Danni Wyatt-Hodge
Having returned from maternity leave after her partner gave birth to their daughter in May, the England opener has scored 294 runs in this tournament prior to the final, smashing Mooney's record for the most runs scored in a single women’s T20 world cup. She is England’s all-time leading T20i run scorer.
England: Linsey Smith
Before the tournament Smith was ranked No 1 T20 bowler in the world having fought her way back to the top since regaining her England contract in early 2024. She is key to England’s early strategy in the field, her brand of spin stifling the opposition early in their innings to contain run-rates and taking key powerplay wickets. Jess Mallaghan
England are also a very different side – despite comprising exactly the same personnel. In the aftermath of the Ashes whitewash, Kate Cross worried that England had lost the public because of their dire performances. The fact that a capacity crowd at Lord’s on Sunday will (almost) all be cheering for England is in many ways already a success story, of a team which have won back hearts and minds by the simple virtue of playing good cricket.
We have one person to thank for that: England’s not-so-secret weapon, one of cricket’s most successful coaches in history – Charlotte Edwards. In 18 months the new head coach has transformed the culture of stagnation and lethargy that had festered under her predecessor, Jon Lewis, turning a team who dropped eight catches in one day of a Test at the MCG into one that snatches impossible chances out of the air. “She’s a great driver of our energy and desire to be better as a team and try and be the best versions of ourselves,” Sciver-Brunt said on Thursday after South Africa had been dispatched.
Edwards’s own desire to once again lift a trophy at Lord’s – a feat she achieved as captain in 2009 – was evident during the semi-final at the Oval, when she came dancing out during the first drinks break to celebrate the crucial wicket of Laura Wolvaardt. “It was like she was playing again, getting around everybody, giving them hugs and stuff,” Sciver-Brunt said. “She lives every ball. She’s so excited and so proud of us all.”
England have never lost a World Cup at home. Whether they can maintain that 100% record on Sunday is far from certain – but doing it for the woman who made it possible for them to be there in the first place seems like pretty decent motivation.
