When Alyssa Healy slammed Deepti Sharma for 14 runs off the first over... or perhaps even before that, when the off-spinner bowled three fu...
When Alyssa Healy slammed Deepti Sharma for 14 runs off the first over... or perhaps even before that, when the off-spinner bowled three full tosses to begin the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup final, there was a firm indication of which way the wind was blowing on Sunday.
Pressure has been a buzzword for hosts Australia throughout the tournament, and more so after the opening defeat and the struggle to reach the final. The home crowd expected big things from Meg Lanning and Co, bigger than the four titles they already had in the format.
But at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the pressure seemed to be all on first-time finalists India. And the visitors crumbled under the weight to lose by 85 runs – the biggest margin in Women’s World Cup finals in terms of runs.
The huge win was built on the record-breaking 115-run opening partnership between Healy and Beth Mooney – the Player of the match and the Player of the tournament respectively. No other T20 World Cup final, men’s or women’s, has seen a team or a player amass as many runs as Australia and the two openers did. In the biggest match, they showed their big-game mentality and that was the chief difference between the two...
