Australian opener Beth Mooney in action.
| Photo Credit: AFP
Ah, these Australian women!
How on earth a team could be this so good. Even in transition, apparently.
Sophie Molineux and her women lifted the Women’s T20 World Cup on a gloriously sunny Sunday (July 5, 2026) afternoon. Expectedly. In style. With yet another dominant show.
They crushed England by seven wickets with 2.5 overs to spare. England’s 150 for four, after being asked to bat first, was never going to be enough against the strong and incredibly deep Australian batting line-up.
A full house, mostly made up of English fans, had come to watch the final at Lord’s. All their loud cheers and all their prayers, could not stop the Australians from winning their seventh title in the tournament, of which this is only the 10th edition.
Opener Beth Mooney led Australia’s with a superb knock (64, 49b, 10×4). She showed her class and experience, refusing England to really come back into the match. It was a well-composed innings, doing precisely what is required in chase like this, in a match like this.
It was her second-wicket stand of 100 off 67 balls with Phoebe Litchfield (48, 35b, 6×4, 2×6) that virtually shut the door on England. The host may have felt it had a chance when opener Georgia Voll played on against Lauren Bell. The seamer clenched her fists in delight. The crowd roared.
It didn’t take Mooney and Litchfield long to silence them. By the time Litchfield fell, bowled by Charlie Dean, Australia was not far from home: only 34 runs were required.
Mooney was trapped in front by Sophie Ecclestone, but it was too late.
Earlier, it took the England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt to get the team out of serious trouble. She remained unbeaten 58 (53b, 5×4). Her unbroken fifth-wicket partnership of 80 with Freya Kemp (44 n.o., 28b, 4×4, 1×6) gave the team a competitive total.
Just two days after playing that semifinal-winning knock against South Africa, Sciver-Brunt had to walk out to the middle in just the second over after opener Amy Jones failed yet again. The England wicketkeeper has had a dismal time with the bat after scoring 53 in the opening match against Sri Lanka.
Jones fell to a sharp, low catch at backward point by Voll off Lucy Hamilton’s second ball. Her opening partner Danni Wyatt-Hodge was in awesome in the group stage, but had failed in the semifinal.
And she disappointed again. She was beautifully caught behind the stumps by a diving Mooney. It had taken a review by Australia to get that wicket though; the umpire had called that ball from Annabel Sutherland a wide, but the replays revealed Wyatt-Hodge had gloved it.
Alice Capsey was determined to support her captain and the duo tried to rebuild the innings. The two were cautious to begin, but the younger partner gave England a much-needed boost when she went after Ashleigh Gardner, hitting her for two fours and a six – the first of the innings – as 16 came off the ninth over.
That helped, but it would not prove enough.
The scores: England 150/4 in 20 overs (Sciver-Brunt 58 n.o., Kemp 44 n.o.) lost to Australia 153/3 in 17.1 overs (Mooney 64, Litchfield 48).
Toss: Australia.
Player-of-the-Match & Player-of-the-Series: Mooney.
Published – July 05, 2026 11:50 pm IST
