T20 World Cup final: Australia target ninth win from 14 tournaments, a level of dominance unique in international sport
Dream Team. All Blacks. USWNT. None have achieved the level of dominance of the Aussie women‘s cricket team, writes LACHLAN MCKIRDY.
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The Australian women’s cricket team might be the most dominant national sporting team of this millennium, and quite possibly of all time.
Across sports. Across genders. Across the planet.
Consider this: victory on Monday morning would represent Australia’s ninth World Cup title from the 14 tournaments contested since 2000 in the 20- and 50-over formats. Of the five completed World Cups they haven’t won, they have finished runners-up twice and reached the semi-finals (or third place play-off) three times.
A win at Newlands would ensure the Australians had won six of the eight T20 World Cups staged, most recently the epic final at the MCG in 2020 played in front of a record 86,174 fans.
Just as impressive as the trophies is the win-loss record.
The Australians have won 113 from 134 completed World Cup games since 2000 for a win record in excess of 84 per cent. It’s a remarkable record and one unmatched by any other national team competing in a major sport in the modern era.
“Australia has been the marker for such a long time now and teams are getting closer and we‘re all aware of that,” said Ash Gardner after Australia’s heart-stopping semi-final win over India on Friday morning. “But I guess it just shows to us that we need to keep getting better as well to keep pushing that boat out even further.
“That‘s certainly an awareness that’s there and it’s great to see that teams are getting better and they’re being better resourced. There’s still certainly a long way to go for other nations to kind of catch up to Australia, India, England, nations like that.”
Said Harmanpreet Kaur, India’s captain: “When you play good cricket in front of a team like Australia, you get to learn a lot as a player and as a team, you get a chance to do well in the future.”
The record of the Australian women’s cricket team at World Cups compares favourably with the most dominant national sporting teams in world sport.
The Dream Team, the USA’s men’s basketball team, is widely considered one of the benchmarks in world sport for their ability to perform at big tournaments. Since the turn of the millennium, they have won seven of the 11 Olympic Games and World Cups they have contested.
Another side consistently in the conversation for best sporting team in the world is the All Blacks, especially since lifting the 2011 and 2015 World Cups.
In World Cups since 2000, New Zealand has lost only three of 32 matches, however, they have been unable to convert as consistently with those defeats all coming in knockout matches.
The round ball game has also seen several dominant teams at World Cups since 2000.
The US women’s team have only lost three of 32 matches at World Cups in that time and lifted the trophy in two of five tournaments. In the men’s game, France has won two World Cups since 1998 and finished runners-up twice.
These results bring into sharp focus the sheer, unrivalled dominance of the Australian women’s team over an extended period of time.
“We want to win everything,” Gardner said ahead of the T20 World Cup final this week. “I think every team wants to do that, but we certainly don‘t want to leave here without a medal.”
Monday’s decider will be Australia’s seventh consecutive appearance in a T20 World Cup final; the only edition they missed was the inaugural competition in 2009.
Alyssa Healy, a member of every victorious Australian T20 World Cup campaign, has been a standout in South Africa and leads the side with 171 runs at 57.00. Another stalwart of the side, Megan Schutt, is the competition’s equal leading wicket-taker with nine for the tournament.
The Aussies don’t just save themselves for the big tournaments.
Since the start of the 2018 T20 World Cup, Australia has lost only seven of 92 matches (7.6 per cent) in all formats. That includes just one ODI loss against India in Mackay – a defeat that ended their world-record 26-match winning streak.
The Australian team has lost just once in the last 12 months – a super over T20I defeat in India – which was why many were surprised to see them omitted from the nominees for the Laureus World Sports Awards 2022 team of the year.
Originally published as T20 World Cup final: Australia target ninth win from 14 tournaments, a level of dominance unique in international sport
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