Opener Beth Mooney made it a stroll in the park for the Aussies.
| Photo Credit: AFP
The West Indies was blown away by the perfect storm that is also known as the Australian women’s cricket team.
The Aussies moved into the final of the Women’s T20 World Cup, winning the first semifinal at the Oval by eight wickets with seven overs to spare on Tuesday. They will take on the winner of Thursday’s second semifinal between England and South Africa at Lord’s in Sunday’s summit clash. That will be their eighth final in what is only the 10th edition of the tournament.
Sophie Molineux’s women hadn’t been stretched so far and had scored convincing wins over India and South Africa, two of the strongest teams in their group. You wouldn’t call the West Indies quite that, and even their captain Hayley Matthews had admitted that no one really expected her team to win against Australia.
Matthews had begun in gorgeous fashion though, driving the first ball of the match, bowled Lucy Hamilton, fluently through the covers for four. Her opening-wicket stand with Qiana Joseph was worth 47, but it took them eight overs.
Saving grace
The wickets continued to tumble, the runs dried up. It took a seventh-wicket stand of 42 off 27 balls between Deandra Dottin, who had to be carried off the field by her teammates shortly before the match got underway, and Jannillea Glasgow, to make sure Australia would have some sort of a target to chase.
The Aussie spinners had a merry time, with Molineux, Ashleigh Gardner and Georgia Wareham sharing six wickets evenly among them. The champion all-rounder Gardner then came back with the bat in her hands to play her part in the easy chase, which was led on a pleasant afternoon by Beth Mooney (61 n.o., 36b, 8×4).
Gardner (35 n.o. 20b, 4×4, 1×6), thus for the second time in as many matches, finished a successful chase for Australia.
The scores (semifinal): West Indies 125/7 in 20 overs (Hayley Matthews 30, Sophie Molineux 2/30, Ashleigh Gardner 2/13, Georgia Wareham 2/17) lost to Australia 127/2 in 13 overs (Beth Mooney 61 n.o., Gardner 35 n.o.); Toss: Australia; PoM: Gardner.
Published – June 30, 2026 10:37 pm IST
