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Australian team proved its absolute supremacy in the women's game, winning an unprecedented seventh T20 World Cup title after making short work of hosts England by seven wickets in the final here on Sunday. Among the greatest sporting outfits across all sports, the Southern Stars made a mockery of a record chase of 151 runs, completing the formalities in only 17.1 overs with Sophie Molineux winning her first ICC title as skipper. Young Phoebe Litchfield (48 off 35 balls), possibly the best batter among the younger crop in women's cricket, stitched a 100-run stand with veteran Beth Mooney (64 off 49 balls) that basically decimated an English attack which had to defend a total that was at least 25 runs sub-par on a decent batting track. Their century stand came off just 69 balls -- a marker why Australian women are a few country miles ahead of other teams in terms of skill and quality. Litchfield, with superb hand-eye co-ordination, muscled her way to six fours and two sixes while ..
Captain Nat Sciver-Brunt's awe-inspiring knock of 75 after an injury led England past South Africa and into the final of the Women's Twenty20 World Cup on Thursday. Sciver-Brunt and former skipper Heather Knight rescued England from 23-3 with a 133-run partnership - the highest ever in a World Cup knockout match - to set South Africa a forbidding 170 target in The Oval semifinal. South Africa, which chose to chase, had the life squeezed out of it and saw the writing on the wall as early as the 11th over after the great Marizanne Kapp was just the third out. By then the run rate required was already at 11 per over for the finalist in the previous two T20 World Cups. No. 2-ranked England won by 40 runs and will face No. 1 Australia in the final at sold-out Lord's on Sunday. It's the first time since 2010 that both teams in the final are unbeaten. England put up 169-5 and South Africa was shrunk to 129-8 in front of a women's T20 semifinal record attendance of 21,128. Sciver-Brunt ..
Australia cruised into yet another Women's Twenty20 World Cup final after hammering the West Indies by eight wickets at The Oval on Tuesday. The West Indies made 125-7 and the inadequacy of that total was exposed by Australia hunting it down with seven overs to spare. Opener Beth Mooney and Ash Gardner partnered in the seventh over of the chase and smoked the bowlers in an unbeaten combination of 63 runs from 37 balls for a winning 127-2. Mooney had 61 from 36 balls and her eighth T20 World Cup fifty, tied for the most with New Zealand's Suzie Bates. Gardner had 35 from 20 and the winning runs from a fourth boundary flicked off her pads. Undefeated Australia will chase its seventh T20 World Cup crown in its eighth final in 10 tournaments. At Lord's on Sunday it will face host England or South Africa. Their semifinal is on Thursday at The Oval. "The T20 World Cup, you just have to ride it. It's full of momentum, swings," Australia captain Sophie Molineux said. "The group's really .
Marizanne Kapp struck a scintillating 45-ball 81 as South Africa overwhelmed India by six wickets in their ICC Women's T20 World Cup clash here on Sunday. Batting first, India posted 158 for seven and South Africa rode on Kapp's brilliant unbeaten knock and Tazmin Brits' 36-ball 40 to complete the chase of 159 in 19.1 overs. Shree Charani (3/24) picked up three wickets for India. Earlier, India were off to a flying start and scored 59 runs in the powerplay due to Shafali Verma (3 off 15 balls) and Smriti Mandhana's (17 off 12 balls) aggressive approach. However, South Africa's bowlers fought back well by applying the brakes on India's scoring in the middle overs while picking up important wickets, including that of India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who made her 200th T20I appearance, a feat no other cricketer -- male and female -- has achieved in the history of the game. Harmanpreet made 24 in her landmark game while Deepti Sharma chipped in with an useful 29 in 21 balls. Shabnim I
Deepti Sharma was never overtly worried during the first part of 2026 when she was not getting wickets as she knew that her time would come sooner or later. Earlier in the year, Deepti had horrible tours of Australia and South Africa where she neither scored runs nor got many wickets except in odd games. On Sunday, one of the world's premier all-rounders was vindicated as her career-best figures of 5 for 10 in 4 overs contributed largely to India's 64-run win over arch-rivals Pakistan in their T20 World Cup opener. "I wasn't worried when I didn't get wickets because I knew when the right time would come, I would step up," Deepti said at the post-match presentation ceremony. In fact, Deepti's stupendous record in ICC tourneys continued and the turn on offer from Edgbaston proved important. "I like these kinds of wickets because there was turn on offer. I varied my pace. Because the ball was turning, I had to be slow in the air and believe in myself and bowl in the right areas. "Bu
England launched its home Women's Twenty20 World Cup in style by crushing Sri Lanka by 87 runs at Edgbaston. After making the highest total in tournament history - 219-1 - with 105 not out by opener Danni Wyatt-Hodge, England dismissed Sri Lanka for 132 on Friday. Left-arm pacer Freya Kemp took a career-best 4-21 including three wickets in one over that reduced Sri Lanka to 92-8. But it was England's record-setting batting that shone on a sunny evening in front of 14,865 fans. Wyatt-Hodge and Amy Jones, who was pushed up the order to open, combined for 100 inside 10 overs. Jones was dropped on 12 and 48 and was out for 53 off 38 balls. But her's and Wyatt-Hodge's stand of 135 was England's highest opening partnership in T20 World Cup history. Captain Nat Sciver-Brunt, only just back from a torn calf in April, was dropped on 14. But her unbeaten 46 off 22 balls shot her past Charlotte Edwards, the former captain and current England coach, to be England's highest run-scorer in T20 W