Women’s T20 WC: ‘I’m grateful we made it this far,’ says Mooney after powering Australia to seventh title

London, July 6 (IANS) Beth Mooney credited Australia’s positive approach in the powerplay and the support from Phoebe Litchfield and Georgia Voll after her match-winning knock guided the team to a record-extending seventh Women’s T20 World Cup title with a seven-wicket victory over England at Lord’s on Sunday.

Mooney was named both the Player of the Match and Player of the Tournament after finishing as the competition’s leading run-scorer with 259 runs. In the final, the experienced opener struck a composed 64 off 49 balls, hitting 10 fours, as Australia comfortably chased down England’s target of 151 in 17.1 overs.

Reflecting on Australia’s latest World Cup triumph, Mooney said the team was grateful simply to have reached the final after falling short in the previous two ICC tournaments.

“Just happy to be here. I think it’s been pretty well documented we haven’t quite made it this far in the last two ICC events. I just woke up this morning pretty grateful we made it this far,” she said.

Mooney also made important contributions behind the stumps, including the stumping of England opener Danni Wyatt-Hodge. She acknowledged the role of Australia’s coaching staff in helping her regain confidence with the gloves during the tournament.

“I warmed up into the tournament. At the start I was a bit rusty, but I got some great support from our coaching staff with Dan Kiley, Shell, the boys and Sean McLeod. I’ve had plenty of help along the way. I can’t take too much credit. It’s been really nice to have some consistency with the gloves and to play a role in the field as well,” she said.

Speaking about standing up to the stumps for the bowlers, Mooney said it was a tactical decision taken together with the bowling group.

“It’s obviously a conversation that happens between me and the bowlers. I’m more than happy to do what they tell me to. It’s their plans and their job to execute, and thankfully they back me to clean up anything that goes a bit awry. We were umming and ahing about that review off Dan, but we got there in the end,” she added.

Mooney also explained the batting approach that helped Australia dominate the chase. After Georgia Voll’s quick start, Phoebe Litchfield’s aggressive innings of 48 from 33 balls ensured Australia stayed ahead of the required rate before the pair added a decisive 100-run partnership.

“It was really important to settle the innings in the powerplay in a big game. Voll got us off to a really good start, hit the ball really well and then had an unfortunate dismissal. Phoebe came out and nailed it from ball one. I just kept going and tried to make sure we got ahead of the game as early as possible,” she said.

Earlier, England posted 150/4 after captain Nat Sciver-Brunt remained unbeaten on 58 and Freya Kemp made an unbeaten 44. However, Mooney’s ninth Women’s T20 World Cup fifty, coupled with Litchfield’s fluent innings, ensured Australia chased down the target with 17 balls to spare to lift the trophy for a record seventh time.

–IANS

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