Well, it was fun while it lasted. Eight months is the time Australia spent without holding a global trophy – a period which ended on Sunday, when they strolled home in the T20 World Cup final with a seven-wicket win against the hosts England.
A 16-0 whitewash in the Ashes. A 3-0 record to Australia in all previous T20 World Cup finals between the two teams. Both sides tried to claim that none of it mattered – “Tomorrow is a new day,” Sophie Molineux said on the eve of the final – but even in front of a sell-out English crowd, even with Alana King on the bench, and even against an England side who have vastly gained in confidence over the past 15 months, Australia made this look like a walk in the park.
Just as she had done in the 2020 and 2023 finals, Beth Mooney struck a half-century, lofting fours down the ground with ease. Phoebe Litchfield, who has never before featured in a World Cup final, thought nothing of casually reverse-sweeping Linsey Smith for six. The 100-run partnership between the pair took Australia within touching distance, and though Litchfield was bowled by Charlie Dean and Mooney was trapped lbw by Sophie Ecclestone in the dying overs of the game, it mattered little.
England’s frustration eventually told: with Australia needing just seven to win, Ellyse Perry charged down the track to Smith and sent a catch up to mid-off. But the third umpire concluded that Ecclestone had not taken the catch cleanly. She was clearly fuming and had to be consoled by Dean, yet the entire incident was academic to the final result. Minutes later Ecclestone sent down a leg-side wide, the ball rolled past Amy Jones down to the boundary, and Australia had won with 17 balls to spare.
England’s own total of 150 for four relied on – who else? – their captain, Nat Sciver-Brunt, who struck an unbeaten 58. Last time England faced Australia in a World Cup final – the 50-over version at Christchurch in 2022 – Sciver-Brunt struck 148 not out, but was still on the losing side. A lot has changed since then: she is now England captain, and has also become a mum; there was a lovely moment at the start of Sunday’s final when she walked out for the anthems holding son Theo in her arms. But the feeling of being on the wrong side of the result, despite out-batting the rest of your team, will presumably hurt just as much now as it did four years ago.
Freya Kemp did add a bit of impetus at the other end, having come in at 70 for four in the 11th, with a sweet six straight as a die off Molineux’s last over. Her partnership with Sciver-Brunt was worth 80 from 55 balls, helping England to stagger to 150. But the stop-start nature of the first 11 overs, with wickets falling at regular intervals and barely a boundary to be found, cost England big.
England have charged through this World Cup as one of the highest scoring teams, twice reaching totals of more than 200, but that was against a different calibre of opponent. Australia’s bowlers have been the most economical in the tournament, and after Molineux chose to field first at the toss, Kim Garth and Lucy Hamilton sent down metronomic opening spells on cue and England succumbed to the pressure.
Jones’s dismissal came as regular as clockwork, caught on the ring, trying to drive but managing only to waft a catch up to Georgia Voll at backward point. It will be interesting to see whether, after a run of single-figure scores, Edwards persists with her in the historic Test here at Lord’s in a week’s time or whether Ellie Threlkeld is given the opportunity to make her case for Jones’s spot.
The wicket of Danni Wyatt-Hodge was a more treasured prize for the Australians: the tournament’s leading run-scorer gloved Annabel Sutherland down the leg-side into the hands of a tumbling Mooney; Australia had to send the decision upstairs, but got their batter in the end, dismissed in single figures.
In response, Alice Capsey came down the track and smashed 16 runs from Ash Gardner’s opening over, but perished to the reverse sweep. Heather Knight, whose wise old head against South Africa had ensured England reached this final in the first place, was trapped leg-before by Kim Garth’s leg-cutter. Knight – perhaps conscious that this could be her last white-ball innings for England, and that it will almost certainly be her last World Cup final – sent the decision upstairs, but replays showed the ball would have fired into leg stump.
This was England’s big opportunity to emulate the successes of the Lionesses and the Red Roses, cheered on by a sell-out crowd and buoyed on the eve of the final by a letter of support from the prime minister, Keir Starmer, and a “good luck” video message from that other England team currently competing in a World Cup, over in Mexico City. It wouldn’t really be fair to say that they squandered it – more that they were never in the game at all. Sometimes, you just have to shake hands and congratulate your opponents on being the better team.
