Australia beat South Africa by 19 runs in the final to win the 2023 Women’s T20 World Cup. Kalika Mehta’s report first appeared in the 2024 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.
At Cape Town, February 26, 2023. Australia won by 19 runs. Toss: Australia.
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, against the impressive backdrop of Table Mountain, Australia reigned supreme once again. Lanning chose to bat, intending to put pressure on South Africa in their first global final. But Mlaba, Ismail and Kapp showed little sign of nerves, making Healy and Mooney work hard during an opening stand of 36. After Kapp removed Healy, Gardner smoked successive sixes off de Klerk, but Mooney had 30 from 31 balls by the end of the 12th. As her partners faltered, she accelerated, hitting her next 44 at two a ball, and reaching her second consecutive half-century in a T20 World Cup final, following 78 not out off 54 deliveries against India at Melbourne three years earlier. Ismail struck twice in the last over to keep Australia within bounds.
South Africa’s chase, though, never left the ground. They tried a steady approach, aiming to see off Schutt, Gardner and Brown, but it backfired. When Luus was run out in the 11th following a chaotic mix-up with Wolvaardt, the equation was 103 from 56. Though Wolvaardt and Tryon put on 55, the required rate soared and, when Schutt trapped Wolvaardt for 61, there was panic. Jonassen, in her 100th T20I, bowled Tryon, and home hopes were snuffed out. Australia clinched their sixth T20 World Cup title, but could not dampen the party atmosphere among a crowd of 12,782 – another record for a women’s match in South Africa. Luus was left to plead with her nation’s administrators for a women’s SA20, following the recent success of the inaugural men’s event. “That would really, really help South African women’s cricket,” she said. “We’ve been asking for it for a very long time.” Lanning, meanwhile, was celebrating her fifth global trophy, which made her cricket’s most garlanded captain – one ahead of Ricky Ponting, whose haul included two Champions Trophies.
Player of the Match: BL Mooney
Player of the Tournament: AK Gardner
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