A young Alyssa Healy grew up batting in a backyard where hitting windows meant getting out. Now, she just breaks glass ceilings. Healy is the latest in Australia's most storied cricketing lineage, with all the pluck and expectation that comes with it.
Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney struck the highest scores in ICC Women's T20 World Cup final history as record-breaking Australia secured a famous fifth title on home soil, in Melbourne, on Sunday. A record-breaking attendance for a women's cricket match of 86,174 watched on as Australia downed first-time finalists India by 85 runs at the MCG, with the openers setting the tone for a clinical performance.
Meg Lanning's Australia, long the benchmark in women's cricket, will bid for a record-extending fifth T20 World Cup title after a rocky ride to their sixth final. Harmanpreet Kaur-captained India arrive at the MCG undefeated and without having bowled a ball in the rained-out semi-final against England.
Brett Lee offered his perspective on what the tournament means for women's cricket.
Shooter Esha Singh becomes youngest to donate to the PM's relief fund.
Harmanpreet Kaur said with sprightly teenagers like Jemaimah Rodrigues and Shafali Verma in the ranks, the team is 'mentally very fresh'.
The Indian women's cricket team produced another listless batting performance to suffer a second successive loss in the T20 triangular series, going down to England by four wickets, in Melbourne, on Friday. Sent in to bat, Indian batters failed to capitalise on their starts as they struggled to 123 for six in 20 overs with opener Smriti Mandhana emerging as the top-scorer with a 40-ball 45.
Rodrigues, Kaur, Mandhana and Sharma were also a part of the now-defunct Kia Super League (KSL) in 2019, the ECB's domestic T20 tournament that made way for the Women's Hundred.
The T20 Challenge, to be played during the IPL play-offs, will begin with last year's finalist Supernovas taking on Velocity in the opening game.
The crushing defeat in Sunday's final against Australia will haunt Harmanpreet Kaur and her team but the cricket-mad country reacted with maturity to the setback and support poured in for Kaur's team, which included several teenagers.
The fast-rising Jemimah Rodrigues starred with the bat, after India's spinners wreaked havoc, to set up a series-clinching seven-wicket win over the West Indies in a low-scoring third women's T20 International, in Providence, Guyana, on Thursday.
New Zealand bowlers Hayley Jensen and Leigh Kasperek picked up three wickets each to help the White Ferns defend a low score and beat Bangladesh by 17 runs in the Women's Twenty20 World Cup on Saturday and stay in the hunt for a semi-final berth from Group A.
India's stunning win over defending champions Australia proves how competitive the women's T20 World Cup is going to be, says former India Test and ODI captain Mithali Raj.
The Women's Twenty20 World Cup gets underway when hosts and defending champions Australia meet India in Sydney on Friday and hopes are high that the seventh edition of the tournament will prove transformational for the game.
Mithali Raj's Velocity overcame some anxious moments late in the innings before registering a three-wicket victory over Trailblazers to keep their hopes alive in the inaugural Women's T20 Challenge, in Jaipur, on Wednesday.
Australia's captain Meg Lanning says her team is going into the Wt20 final against India not just to put on a good show, but win it.
Australia goes into the ICC women's T20 World Cup summit clash as favourites, but with India having stunned them on the opening night in Sydney, we could be in for the most electric final yet.
India will take on four-time winners Australia, who defeated South Africa by five runs in what was also a rain-hit semi-final, curtailed to 13 overs after Australia's innings.
India's star-studded top four failed to fire against the West Indies, but Shikha Pandey's late show hauled them up to 107 and they defended it superbly, Poonam Yadav starring with the ball to earn a two-run win.
'These girls keep complaining to their godmother or godfather.'' 'The people at the top listen to whatever the players say, but they don't know what is happening in the team.'
The Indian women's cricket team needs to develop the mental toughness that the mighty Australians possess to end its drought of winning a World title, believes veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami. Like the men's team, Indian women have been consistently reaching the knockout stages of ICC events in recently but have failed to lay their hands on the trophy. In fact, they are yet to win a World Cup.
Spinner Deepti Sharma bowled three maiden overs in her four-over quota, apart from taking three wickets, as the Indian women team edged past South Africa by 11 runs in the first T20 International.
Harmanpreet Kaur led Supernovas to a four-wicket victory over Velocity with a brilliant 51 in the final of the Women's T20 Challenge on Saturday, and immediately credited her team-mates for the triumph.
Teenager Jemimah Rodrigues struck an unbeaten 77 to help Supernovas beat Velocity by 12 runs and enter the final of the Women's T20 Challenge.
Harmanpreet Kaur brought more attention to women's cricket in India than ever before when she hit 171 not out to knock Australia out of ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2017. When she leads India onto the MCG on Sunday, she will become the first woman to ever captain India in a T20 World Cup final. It's not just her country's first appearance in the showpiece, but also one that could break history in setting a world record attendance for a women's sporting event.
All that's transpired on and off the cricket pitch on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old Molineux, who plays for Melbourne Renegades in the Women's Big Bash League, has requested for a break and will not be travelling with the Renegades squad to Ballarat for their match against Melbourne Stars on Saturday.
When defending champions Australia compete in the Women's Twenty20 World Cup final in Melbourne on Sunday, they will earn the same as their male counterparts would - in stark contrast to their rivals, India. In cricket-mad India, male players are revered as gods, paid handsomely and showered with lucrative endorsement deals, from watches and shoes to snacks, headphones and even toothbrushes. The women barely get a look-in.
The 49-year-old's Twitter account was hacked on Monday and the hacker had posted derogatory anti-Iran tweets.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur struck a sensational half century as Supernovas clinched the Women's T20 Challenge with a four-wicket victory over Velocity in a dramatic final, in Jaipur, on Saturday.
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