Australia 153 for 3 (Mooney 64, Litchfield 48) beat England 150 for 4 (Sciver-Brunt 58*, Kemp 44*, Hamilton 1-19) by seven wickets
In the end, the irresistible force won at a canter.
Bell fells Voll – at a cost
A target of 151 was higher than had been chased in any previous Women’s T20 World Cup final. England, encouraged by the notion that this was a stoppy Lord’s surface, opened with the offspin of Charlie Dean. She was promptly dumped through long-on first ball by Georgia Voll, who was then given out lbw second ball, only for it to be overturned on review.
England needed wickets, and they got one in a costly second over. Lauren Bell started well enough, but then delivered a wide full toss from her fourth ball that ended up going for five no-balls. Voll then clubbed the resultant free hit for another boundary, but was out from Bell’s next legal delivery, detonating her middle stump with a bottom-edged cut. Bell’s jubilation – and relief – was writ large, but with Litchfield pinging her first ball straight down the ground, the over had cost 15 and the signs were ominous.
Litchfield, Mooney apply sleeper hold
Bell was given a second but Mooney, who had crabbed to 9 off her first 11 balls, made Sciver-Brunt regret that call by filleting three boundaries in a 16-run over. Litchfield then responded to her partner upping the ante by sweeping Dean for four and then skipping out to caress six over deep extra cover. With Mooney clobbering a fifth boundary off Linsey Smith in the next, Australia finished the powerplay on 62 for 1 with the chase in rude health.
The second-wicket pair continued to tag-team effectively, as England scrabbled around for a toehold in the game. Both batters were precise with the footwork, picking off regular boundaries to keep the pressure on – and the closest England came to a breakthrough when it mattered was when Litchfield went looking for two and nearly ran herself out to Dean in the deep. Back-to-back fours from Litchfield in Bell’s third over took Australia to 98 for 1 at the halfway mark.
Litchfield added a reverse-sweep for six in an innings that oozed class, though it was Mooney that went to fifty first, from 37 balls. In the event, Litchfield didn’t get there, Dean spearing one through on the back foot to end the stand at exactly 100 – but by then the game was as good as done.
Bowlers take a grip
After a tight first over, in which Kim Garth conceded a boundary off an inside edge to go with three singles, Australia claimed first blood in the second. Lucy Hamilton had been backed as a key weapon for Australia for her powerplay thriftiness, despite not having taken a wicket in the tournament to this point. However, she rectified that with her second ball in the final, as Amy Jones fished at a drive to be snapped up at backward point.
While Sciver-Brunt pumped her first ball imperiously through the covers for four, she was largely shackled through the first six – in which Australia landed another big blow by removing the 2026 edition’s leading run-scorer, Danni Wyatt-Hodge. Annabel Sutherland had conceded 12, including two boundaries and a no-ball from the first four balls of the fifth, but claimed the wicket thanks to some brilliant work by Mooney behind the stumps. A brush of the glove down leg was detected only on DRS, but Mooney’s instinctive dive to grab the rebound after parrying the initial chance was worthy of reward.
Capsey fightback capped
A powerplay score of 39 for 2 told of England’s struggles, and they could not break free through the middle, either. After a slow start, Alice Capsey briefly sallied forth to unsettle Australia’s poise, three boundaries helping to take 16 off the ninth over. Ash Gardner’s first ball, a full toss, was carted through the leg side, before Capsey went even bigger with the first six of the day over wide long-on, then finished with a drilled four. But she was cleaned up in the next over looking to reverse-sweep Molineux, ending a laboured stand of 35 from 30 balls.
Kemp finish glosses the cracks
With Heather Knight going cheaply, pinned in front by Garth, it was over to England’s allrounder engine room to provide support for the captain. Kemp’s status as a finisher has been enhanced no end over the last month and the left-hander stepped up once again, finding the boundary three times in her first 12 balls – driven through cover, flicked fine and then pulled with power – to kickstart a flagging innings. With Sciver-Brunt picking off fours against Molineux and Garth to raise a 45-ball fifty, and Kemp then smoking only the second six of the innings straight back down the ground in the final over, England added 57 from the last six overs and ensured that Australia would at least have to chase 150. Not that it would be enough.
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at Cricinfo. @alanroderick
