Women’s T20 side saviours of a national sporting reputation

The Australian women’s cricket team have come along and won the World T20 final in the Caribbean against England.

Australian captain Meg Lanning celebrates with the trophy during the ICC Women's World T20 final against England in Antigua. Picture: Harry Trump/Getty Images

The people’s team? Right now, these people.

The Wallabies have embarrassed themselves by hitting a 109-year rugby low against England and telling a few porky pies along the way. A whopping great grey cloud will hang over Australia’s male cricketers for a while yet. The World Cup of Golf has gone elsewhere on a weekend to forget for Australian sport — until the Australian women’s cricket team have come along and won the World T20 final in the Caribbean.

They’ve done it joyously. Gleefully. Emphatically. Georgia Wareham is a Victorian teenager. She took the match by the scruff of the neck with two wickets and a lightning run-out. Ash Gardner is a 21-year-old from NSW. She’s wrung the life out of it with three wickets and an unbeaten innings of 33 runs. And yet it’s been the fingerprints of captain Meg Lanning all over this eight-wicket victory against England. Afterwards, she’s become suitably emotional.

Two years ago, Australia’s skipper was so devastated by the loss to the West Indies in the World T20 final she needed to be lifted to her feet by Ellyse Perry. Yesterday she leapt, roaring, after the cricketing gods allowed her the honour of hitting the winning run at Antigua’s Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.

“The last World Cup really hurt,” she said. “We learned from that. We’ve really embraced the fact that we’ve needed to move things forward and it showed tonight. This is a very satisfying win given the tournaments we’ve had in the last couple of years.

“I just ran as quick as I could for the winning run. There was a lot of emotion out there. We were ready to do the job tonight.”

The Wallabies’ 37-18 loss in the rugby Test at Twickenham has been the first time in 109 years they’ve lost six straight Tests to England. Coach Michael Cheika has denied he lied about team changes. He’s also admitted he hasn’t told the truth.

Australia’s men’s T20 cricket team to play India at the SCG last night bared little resemblance to a full-strength Australian side. Leading players have been unavailable due to suspensions or scheduling logjams.

The Australian duo of Marc Leishman and Cam Smith have gone down the gurgler at the world cup golf. But our Southern Stars cricketers have been immune to controversy and/or defeat. Winners are grinners.