Women’s T20 World Cup: Australia Reaches Final
In the women's T20 World Cup in Bangladesh, Australia secured the final place for the third consecutive times after beating West Indies by eight runs.
The Aussies batted first and made 140 for the loss of 5 wickets. In the second innings, West Indies was batting well, putting pressure to the opponent. The opening batsmen were cruising nicely till Kycia Knight was bowled by Erin Osborne, followed by the dismissal of Stafanie Taylor in a run-out. The 78-run stand came in just 8.4 overs when Deandra Dottin came in the pitch to respond to 9.3 run rate after the end of 10 overs.
Dottin, instead of all-round-attack, tried to play safe. However, she took due opportunity of the loose deliveries and added 50 runs with the company of Stacy-Ann King. At this stage, West Indies needed 43 runs from 28 deliveries. But the downfall started when they need 20 runs from 11 deliveries. Dottin tried to hit a low full-toss ball from Sarah Coyote, smoothly reaching the hands of Erin Osborne in deep midwicket.
On the Australian end, kudos to Alyssa Healy who batted No.7, added 30 vital runs at the trail of the match. Opener Elyssa Villani's 35 runs stand and Meg Lanning's 29 helped Aussies to come out of the rubble after West Indies rattled the middle-order wickets within 14 runs
West Indies was in a winning position as they were quite comfortable on slow wicket. But the disaster came in the eighth over from the dismissal of Taylor. The fall of second wicket came soon when Kycia Knight moved out of the crease to face a flighted delivery from Erin Osborne, missing the chance and ended by losing the middle stump. The Aussie bowlers were at one stage desperate to break the partnership. Once broken, the match turned into their favour to secure the berth in the final of T20 World Cup.