The age old rivalry between Ashes rivals, England and Australia will lock horns but today it will be in the form of women’s cricket when they play the final of the ICC Women’s Twenty20 World Championship at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. This encounter will be played at 2.30pm local time, prior to the [...]

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The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

English lasses hold all aces

By Naushad Amit ; Pics by Amila Gamage
Women’s T-20 final
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The age old rivalry between Ashes rivals, England and Australia will lock horns but today it will be in the form of women’s cricket when they play the final of the ICC Women’s Twenty20 World Championship at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. This encounter will be played at 2.30pm local time, prior to the men’s final.

Skippers of the two women’s finalists with the plum.

Predictably, on paper England holds the edge to clinch this year’s T20 World title with their impressive track record in the competition. England remains unbeaten in the competition so far, which gives them the favourite’s tag. Australia on the other hand has suffered a defeat and interestingly at the hands of these same rivals of today.

England has about seven professional players in their present squad making them the stronger of both sides. Australia can boast of their promising talents, but the defeat they suffered in their group stage game against England will play an effective part. Partially it could become a blessing for the Aussie lasses, but it still stands as a strong psychological disadvantage for them.

England led by Charlotte Edwards has been clinical throughout the competition. They beat the lesser impressive Pakistan and India in the group stage before comprehensively gunning down Australia in which was one of the high-scoring games in the women’s competition.

The English ladies have been blessed with some good batters who have been in touch throughout the competition. Interestingly only six of their batters have been among runs while the bottom half of the line up never got opportunities to take the crease. Skipper Edwards who claims an average of 48.00 from four outings has scored 144 runs and comes as an opener. The best of averages is under Sarah Taylor’s possession. She claims an average of 119.00 in four matches, with a tally of 119 runs. Her best reads as 65 not out. Among other batters are Danielle Wyatt and Laura Marsh who also is the second highest wicket taker for England with five scalps. In addition they possess spinners. Highest wicket taker for England, Holly Colvin with seven wickets, Laura Marsh, Danielle Wyatt and Danielle Hazell, who can become handy for them. Though Australia is possessed with talented players, as a team they are yet to come out with an impressive performance. The ones who are in form with the bat are Meg Lanning, Jess Cameron, Lisa Sthalekar, Alysse Healy and Alex Blackwell. But none of them has scored a half century. Lanning is Australia’s key batter after having scored 113 runs in four games. Her average reads as 28.25 with the best being 39. Cameron has scored 106 runs in four matches with a best of 42 and an average of 35.33 while Sthalekar and Healy have a run tally of 93 and 66 respectively. In four games Sthalekar claims an average of 31.00 while Healy’s average is just under 17.00. Blackwell has scored 53 runs with an average of 17.66. In bowling speedster Julie Hunter has been impressive with nine wickets in total and a best of 5 for 22 in the semi-final against West Indies. Elysse Perry and Erin Osborne are the other notable bowlers of the side with a tally of five wickets each. On their way to the final, Australia beat West Indies by 28 runs while England had very little trouble to record a comprehensive 7-wicket win against New Zealand in the semi-finals.




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