T20 World Cup Australia v Sri Lanka: Meg Lanning delivers a declaration of Waugh

Meg Lanning did a Steve Waugh in more ways than one against Sri Lanka at the WACA Ground.

Australian captain Meg Lanning sweeps for runs in her team’s nervous win over Sri Lanka in the Women’s T20 World Cup matchin Perth: Picture: AAP

Meg Lanning did a Steve Waugh in more ways than one. She marched so quickly to the crease that the previous batter had barely left the square when she was already taking her guard.

She displayed the sort of furious game face that suggested if Australia lost, it might be over her dead body.

She could not have mounted a more resolute rescue mission if there was a red handkerchief in her back pocket.

This was a mighty captain’s innings that kept Australia’s World Cup campaign alive. She was all intent and gloriously grim determination in a five-wicket triumph that was excruciatingly tight, three balls to spare.

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When Lanning gave an undetected nick to Sri Lanka’s wicketkeeper Anushka Sanjeewani on 16, no way known to womankind was she going to walk.

Chasing Sri Lanka’s humdrum 6-122, the hosts were batting with trembling hands and faltering feet at 3-10 when Lanning’s eyes grew narrow, when her brow furrowed, when she took it upon herself to do what she had to do. Lead.

The prospect of wet weather in Perth on Monday had put Australia in a cold sweat in a must-win game but early in their innings, with Alyssa Healy (0), Beth Mooney (6) and Ash Gardner (2) all back in the dugout, they would have been tempted to pray for rain. The situation was shocking. The predicament was precarious. Australia’s Cup risked being over.

No more wickets were lost. Rachael Haynes clubbed 60 from 47 balls to get player-of-the-match honours but it was Lanning’s Waugh-esque aura that calmed the seas and allowed her teammate to flourish.

The icewoman finished on 41 from 44 deliveries in her 100th T20 international. In dire straits when Lanning got to the crease, and still with work to do when Haynes departed, the defending Cup champions were good things as long as Lanning was around.

“Nice to get the win. Under pressure there a little bit. Nice to get over the line,” Lanning said after her 95-run stand with Haynes.

“Luckily we were only chasing one-twenty, so it allowed us a bit of time to get into it.

“We definitely need to play better heading into the next couple of games but sometimes it’s nice to just get off the mark for the tournament.

“It was just a little bit of an unsettling start with the bat.”

Mercurial opener Healy had her woodwork disturbed by a zooming inswinger from left-armer Udeshika Prabodani with the second ball of the innings. Lanning braced for one of the most important innings of her life. Australia were 1-0 and skidding off the road when Healy was cleaned up by a dream delivery that pitched outside off stump, swung like a boomerang and collected the top of middle stump.

A near-identical delivery from Prabodani took the off stump of Gardner.

The Australians were 2-8. Gardner was only halfway from the field when Lanning was scuffing the crease like a bull at a gate. Like the gritty Waugh, she was not always at her free-flowing best. Like the gritty Waugh, she found a way, diving home for the winning run like he had done with a busted calf muscle at The Oval in 2001.