Women's T20 World Cup: Australia's Women's T20 World Cup win over South Africa

Australian cricketers led by Meg Lanning have won yet another major trophy after successfully defending their women's T20 World Cup gold in Cape Town with a decisive 19-run victory against the hosts. The Australians, who chose to bat, compiled 6-156 at Newlands on Sunday, and Player of the Match Beth Mooney's unbeaten 53-ball 74 did the most to put pressure on the South Africans in their first-ever World Cup final appearance. The Proteas were eventually held to 6-137 as Lanning's squad won the T20 world championship for the third consecutive year and the sixth time in the previous seven editions. This was accomplished by bowling and fielding with precise efficiency to remain largely in control. Player of the Competition Lanning earned a historic victory in her 100th T20I as captain thanks to Ashleigh Gardner's exceptional all-around performance on the warm afternoon in front of a sold-out crowd of 13,000 spectators. With her 21-ball 29 to start the game, Gardner gave Australia a boost. Later, she defended 26 off the game's last over to finish with 4-0-20-1 and ensuring that her team won the World Cup three times in a row. Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown, and Jess Jonassen each grabbed a crucial wicket as Australia won their 13th overall global title in white-ball cricket, adding to the excellent collective performance of the Australian bowlers. Australia did not, however, win by a landslide. 

South Africa's first-ever World Cup final appearance gave rise to romantic aspirations of a historic triumph thanks to Laura Wolvaardt's 48-ball 61 and Shabnim Ismail's 4-1-26-2. With the help of Chloe Tryon and Wolvaardt's 35-ball 55 partnership, the hosts closed the gap on victory to 48 runs with Wolvaardt's third consecutive fifty. Nevertheless, Wolvaardt was bowled out for 25 from 23 after Schutt trapped him in the 17th over.The reigning champions scored 46 runs in the last overs thanks to Mooney's quickfire 15-ball 33 partnership with No. 6 Ellyse Perry (seven off five balls). Similar to her match-winning fifties in the finals of the 2020 T20 World Cup, 2022 ODI World Cup, and the Commonwealth Games final, left-handed opener Mooney's clutch innings again proved crucial. Because I was hitting it so hard, she revealed."I actually asked one of the females who ran out to ask Shell (head coach Shelley Nitschke) if she could ask Shell (head coach Shelley Nitschke) if she wanted to retire me." That simply goes to show that if you stay around for long enough and master the pitch's speed, even if it didn't quite make it to Shell, you can still succeed. "Maybe not the best idea there, stepping over and attempting to hit it too square, but after I kept a little still and hit a little straighter, it wasn't too awful,"  the player said.

With her 42nd strike in the competition, Ismail became the highest wicket-taker in the history of the women's T20 World Cup when she bowled a double-wicket 20th over to conclude the Australian innings.After Alyssa Healy was disqualified for a 20-ball 18, Gardner, who had been elevated to Lanning's regular No. 3 position, guided Australia from 1-36 on the powerplay to double that run total by the midway point. As Tryon came on, Gardner's 41-ball, 46-run second-wicket partnership with Mooney ended when the 25-year-old holed out to long-off. With 17 balls remaining in the innings, Tryon then made an outstanding catch at deep midwicket off a Lanning pull to bring the score of the opposition down to 4-122. 34 of those supplies were collected by Australia. Mooney alone contributed 25 to that total as she reached her second consecutive half-century of this World Cup off 44 balls.As others are watching what we do and how we conduct ourselves, their winning streak won't extend indefinitely, according to Mooney. So we'll take advantage of it for as long as we can, and maybe we can keep on winning and celebrating the wonderful things in life.