Healy fireworks guide Australia to victory and fifth World T20 crown
Batter hits aggressive 75 as India lose by 85 runs Singer Katy Perry helps entertain 86,000 crowd
Australia swept aside India to win a fifth Women’s Twenty20 World Cup in front of 86,174 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The home side made a flying start in racking up 184 for four before taking early wickets to bowl out India in the final over for 99.
The attendance was 4,000 short of the world record for women’s sport, set at the 1999 football World Cup final in California.
American singer Katy Perry added to the spectacle by leading off the match with her hits Roar and Firework and returned with a post-match concert to cap off International Women’s Day.
Openers Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney took turns in dominating Australia’s innings. Healy was dropped in the first over before blasting through the next dozen, launching five sixes in an innings of 75 from 39 deliveries.
Once she was caught at long-on to end a partnership of 115, Mooney took charge of the boundary striking and batted through for an unbeaten 78 from 54 balls, even though India dismissed Meg Lanning, Ash Gardner and Rachael Haynes at the other end.
“The longer you’re out there, the easier it is to bat,” said Mooney. “You collect all the information and data that’s in front of you, and help your mate out at the other end. I was happy to get ‘Midge’ [Healy] on strike, she was hitting it that well, but you want to kick on from a big partnership like that.”
India’s top order had the power to challenge in the chase, but never got going. Six-hitting teenage sensation Shafali Verma had been out of sorts since dropping Healy in the field. Seam bowler Megan Schutt opened the bowling, pulling back her length with the second ball of the innings to draw an outside edge from a push. Schutt confirmed that the Australians knew that Verma was deflated and that they could target her.
“Definitely, 100 per cent. She’s young, and she’s got a lot of learning to do,” said Schutt. “In cricket, body language is everything. You don’t want to let the opposition know when they’re on top of you. That was obviously a pretty costly drop. I felt I had a good chance against her anyway. The way she bats, it’s either going over the fence or it’s out.”
India then suffered the misfortune of having Taniya Bhatia struck on the head from a top edge, which required teenager Richa Ghosh to bat as a concussion substitute. With the required run rate starting at more than eight per over and rising, India lost all composure and a succession of players fell trying to clear the outfield. Schutt benefited most with four for 18.
“We spoke before we went out to bat about playing good cricket shots to settle the nerves down,” said the captain, Lanning. “After that first over there was a big sigh [of relief] from the group, we just got into the game.
“Beth and Midge set the game up beautifully for us, they calmed the dugout down, and from there it was pretty smooth.”
The win put Healy level with husband Mitchell Starc in terms of world trophies. Five years ago at the same venue, Starc bowled New Zealand’s hard-hitting captain Brendon Mccullum for a duck in the final of the one-day World Cup to set Australia on the path to a dominant win in front of 93,000 fans.
Asked who had the upper hand now in the family, Healy wasted no time in responding.
“One hundred per cent me,” she said. “I’ve been a part of a lot of successful World Cup campaigns now but to do it here on home soil was always going to be incredibly difficult to do.
“I guess Mitch and I are 1-1 on that stage.”
Arguably of more importance than the result was the occasion. It was proof of how support for women’s cricket has transformed in the past few years in Australia and in India, taking the sport from the very margins of public attention to a marquee event at the nation’s biggest ground.
“You cannot wipe the smile off my face one bit,” beamed Healy. “Even if we lost the game I still would have been smiling. I never thought we would get an opportunity like this in my whole career. I thought maybe in 20 years’ time some girls might get that.”
Hours later, as she took the stage for Perry’s finale, Healy was still smiling.