Tuesday in Sharjah was Megan Schutt’s time, as the leader of the Australia attack underlined her brilliance with remarkable returns of 3/3 in 3.2 overs, to play a huge part in her team’s 60-run win over the White Ferns. Megan Schutt’s first wicket in the game saw her become the leading wicket-taker in the history of the Women’s T20 World Cup, moving beyond Shabnim Ismail and onto 46 wickets in 26 innings.
Megan Schutt has been playing cricket for Australia for well over a decade, and such is her longevity that her world-class quality is often treated as a given. But there was no ignoring Megan Schutt in Sharjah, as she took the first wicket of the innings to clean up Georgia Plimmer, prized out the key New Zealand wicket to dismiss Melie Kerr, and then finished off the game by castling Eden Carson. And Kerr was among those to sing her opponent’s praises after the game.
And Megan Schutt now is neck-and-neck with Pakistan’s Nida Dar as the leading women’s wicket-taker in the history of the format, with both having 143 wickets in their careers to-date. But Megan Schutt herself downplayed her own impact.
Pitch and Toss
It’s a bit cooler today at 36 degree Celsius. It’s the same pitch as yesterday – 73m straight boundary, 59 and 63m square boundaries. Spinners will definitely come into play at this venue, the bounce is lower as well. Plenty of grass which is even, so should hold the pitch together. There should be spin and 124 was chased down yesterday, reckon it’ll be the same today as well, reckon Mel Jones and Pommie Mbangwa, in their pitch report.
Australia women skipper Alyssa Healy won the toss and chose to bat with one change in the playing XI with Grace Harris replacing Darcie Brown. New Zealand women skipper Sophie Devine who also wanted to bat first made one change in her squad bringing in Fran Jonas for Jess Kerr in the playing XI while bowling.
Amelia Kerr’s 4-fer restrict Australia to 148 in 20 overs
Earlier, Australia won the toss and opted to bat first, and they got off to a superb start as Healy sparkled in the early overs, peppering the boundary in her 26 (20).
New Zealand picked up the big wicket when Healy skied a catch off Mair to bring Perry to the crease, but fellow opener Mooney picked up the mantle to build a decent platform for the defending champions. Australia reached 43/1 at the end of the six-over powerplay and Perry struggled to get going at the start of her innings as the scoring rate briefly slowed.
However, Mooney carried on where she left off in Australia’s win over Sri Lanka, keeping the scoreboard ticking over to give her team’s deep batting lineup a large platform to build off in the back end of the innings. Mooney’s innings came to an end when she mistimed a shot off Kerr, offing a simple catch to Green, departing for 40 (32). And New Zealand hit back through the middle overs as an inspired Kerr bowled Perry (30 from 24) and new batter Grace Harris with consecutive balls to reduce the Aussies to 109/4.
Kerr picked up a fourth wicket when she had Georgia Wareham caught for 4 (5), finishing with figures of 4/26, and she was heavily involved in the field too, pulling off an excellent catch in the deep to remove Phoebe Litchfield (18 from 18) off the bowling of Brooke Halliday. And Australia closed on 148/8, leaving New Zealand with a target that proved far too challenging in the second innings.
After a strong start to their batting innings, Australia had nosedived as they lost six wickets for 29 runs towards the latter end. The collapse was triggered by spinner Amelia Kerr who finished with impressive figures of 4 for 26. The pitch at Sharjah played better for the slower bowlers once again and Kerr made the best use of the conditions. She first got rid of the dangerous-looking Ellyse Perry for 30 with a googly, and followed it up next ball with another to get past the defence of Grace Harris.
She was complemented well in this period by Brooke Halliday, whose off-pace bowling proved to be difficult to put away. Halliday accounted for a well-set Phoebe Litchfield and then Annabelle Sutherland in the final over, which further pegged Australia back although they got close to 150 with a couple of timely boundaries late in the innings.
This was in contrast to how they had started off after opting to bat. Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy had given them a blistering start in the powerplay, which was then taken forward by an attacking Perry. Healy set the tone, taking on the spinners and hitting powerfully over the infield on the offside to get the early boundaries. But just as she was getting into her groove she was undone by a slower ball from Rosemary Mair.
Mooney managed a couple of boundaries soon after in her 45-run stand with Perry. Her brisk knock came to an end when she miscued a loft to give Kerr her first wicket. Perry now took up the mantle to take the attack to the opposition. She lofted Eden Carson for a six and followed it up with a pulled boundary.
It added salt to an incensed New Zealand, who had been denied a catch call against Litchfield after umpires deemed that a low catch had been grassed. Kerr was picked up for a boundary apiece by Litchfield and Perry before she struck back and turned the innings around.
On a surface with a nice layering of grass, Australia might have suspected they had won a good toss when they elected to bat. After Healy’s 26 off 20, that decision was looking more sound than ever, as Australia struck 43 inside the powerplay.
It might not have been so though, had Healy not been convinced by partner Mooney to review an lbw call in the third over. That overturned decision seemed to bring clarity, as the very next delivery from Fran Jonas was smoked over mid-off. Two balls later, another one over extra cover. She’d repeat the trick in the next over as well, before carving one over point in the final over of the powerplay. While Healy fell looking for a fifth loft over the offside, Australia had set the ideal platform for their innings.
Once the fielding restrictions were lifted, Perry in particular struggled to turn over the strike. The pressure that was built eventually told when she struck one straight to long-on, only for Maddy Green to spill the chance. New Zealand unsurprisingly came to the rue that missed opportunity as Perry and Mooney stitched together the match’s highest stand of 45 off 38.
What both batters did well from there on was not get bogged down. While boundaries were hard to come by, they were still eager to use their feet and keep ticking over singles. It meant the momentum set up by Healy’s early salvo was never lost. This was highlighted by Mooney’s 40 off 32, which included just the two boundaries.
Once Mooney fell, caught trying – and failing – to clear mid-off, Perry took over as aggressor carting Eden Carson for six over long-off, before pummeling her through square leg. Bookending those strikes was a pair of boundaries off two Kerr overs, as Perry threatened to take the game away from New Zealand.
But just as Australia were looking to truly unleash, Kerr struck in consecutive deliveries in the 14th over to take out Perry and Grace Harris, having already removed Mooney earlier. Kerr grabbed one more before signing off, making it three wickets in a five-ball period for the leg spinner.
These wickets had the effect of snuffing out Australia’s momentum, though their propensity for picking up singles mixed in with the odd boundary meant they still managed 32 runs off the final five overs. Not as much as they would have liked, but enough to push them to a fairly imposing total.
Megan Schutt takes 3 for 3 as Australia push closer to a semi-final spot
The six-time champions bested their antipodean neighbors in all facets of the game, winning by 60 runs to cement their spot at the top of Group A.
It was the Australian top order who set up the win with an aggressive batting effort having won the toss, as Alyssa Healy (26 from 20), Beth Mooney (40 from 32), Ellyse Perry (30 from 24) and Phoebe Litchfield (18 from 18) did the heavy lifting to set New Zealand 149 to win in Sharjah.
And the White Ferns slumped to a 60-run loss as they were blitzed by a brilliant bowling effort from the defending champions, for whom Megan Schutt returned extraordinary figures of 3/3 from her 3.2 overs, with Sophie Molineux (2/15) and Annabel Sutherland (3/21) also impressing.
New Zealand’s chase suffered an early setback when Megan Schutt wrote herself into the record books, bowling Georgia Plimmer (4) in the third over to become the leading wicket-taker in the history of the Women’s T20 World Cup.
The White Ferns looked intent on setting a platform early in their effort, reaching 29/1 at the end of the powerplay, with Kerr and Suzie Bates surviving a testing spell against the Australian attack. But the innings turned on the wicket of Kerr (29 from 31), who looked to take on Megan Schutt to up the scoring rate and miscued a catch straight to Sutherland.
And the wickets tumbled from thereon in. Georgia Wareham got in on the act, accounting for Brooke Halliday (2), before Sutherland took centre stage, putting herself on a hat-trick as she cleaned up Maddy Green (1) and then had Isabella Gaze (0) trapped in front next ball. The hat-trick wasn’t to be, but Sutherland bagged her third wicket when she cleaned up Rosemary Mair, finishing with figures of 3/21. And Megan Schutt returned to finish the match off, bagging her third wicket to wrap up a statement win for her team.
But the score of 148, which was only the second 125-plus score for a team batting first in this World Cup, proved to be more than enough for Australia. Megan Schutt gave them the perfect start getting Georgia Plimmer bowled in her second over and consequently becoming the leading wicket-taker in Women’s T20 World Cups.
Suzie Bates and Amelia Kerr prevented further inroads for a while, putting on 47 for the second wicket. But the partnership saw boundaries hard to come by which resulted in additional pressure once it was broken. Sophie Molineux got past Bates to provide the breakthrough which kickstarted a downward spiral.
Schutt came back to have Kerr caught in the next over while Georgia Wareham had Halliday caught on the reverse sweep in the following one. Sutherland pushed them further down with a double strike that saw the back of Maddy Green and Isabella Gaze in successive deliveries. With that New Zealand had lost five wickets for just six runs even as skipper Sophie Devine watched on from the other end.
She became the ninth wicket to fall after coming down and swinging wildly against Molineux. Megan Schutt finished things off just the way she had started to put Australia comfortably on top of Group A.
Knowing that they had a good total on the board, Australia’s goal was to simply make life as difficult as possible for New Zealand’s batters – and that they did. Megan Schutt set the tone with her impeccable lines and lengths, never allowing the batters to swing their arms, while she was ably supported by her team-mates.
This meant that while New Zealand lost just one wicket inside the powerplay, they were only able to muster 29 runs. By the 10th over, it was still one wicket down but the scoreboard had just about ticked over to 54. The final 10 overs then brought about the conclusion they’d been planning for throughout as batter after batter got out trying to hit out. In the end, at no point in the chase we New Zealand ever in the game.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Sophie Devine the loosing skipper said : We needed to get a good start, we let the run-rate creep up and in games like that the run-rate can accelerate so quickly. Disappointing night, but as we said after the first game we won’t get too high when we win or too low when we lose. The wicket played a little better than what we thought it would, we knew what Australia would bring. We will take some key learnings from this.
We will reflect and refocus before our next game against Sri Lanka. With the ball we strayed a bit too far from the stumps, that’s where we were good against India where we kept them in play.
In the field we were sloppy and with the bat we need to be more courageous and that’s what we need to do to win games in this World Cup. It was always a discussion point, we want to win the game obviously, there was a thought process about the run-rate but we weren’t good enough tonight.
We have got two games to go and we have to make sure that we keep ourselves in a good position to qualify for the semi-finals. Taking it one game at a time, not focusing too far ahead. First we need to win our next game which is against Sri Lanka, that is our most important game, they bring a different challenge with Chamari who is a big threat.
Alyssa Healy the winning skipper said : We just got it done. Probably disappointed at the halfway mark, could have been a bit more smarter at the end. Shut the game early with the ball and pleased with that. Little bit more bounce tonight and kept the stumps in play, the way they bowled at the backend showed that and the way we bowled throughout showed that.
Showcases they haven’t had a whole heap of batting, we now know what the teams will throw at us at the backend, 150 on that wicket was good enough. [on Schutt] She is awesome in World Cups in particular, not easy when you got just one look at her. She set the tone first up. The whole bowling group was unbelievable, Annabel Sutherland, that over changed it for us.
Megan Schutt Player of the Match for her 3 wickets said : I feel I have lost a few liters, but it was a crucial match, they played well against India and so to come out like that was clinical. It ebbed and flowed in the first innings, we thought we’d get to 160 at one stage, but we lost a few wickets and so were probably 10-15 runs short, but we knew if we do well in the powerplay, it will set us up.
I just bowled to the basics, we kept to our plans, to play in heat like this, the extensive preparations did help. It’s a World Cup and we certainly want to enjoy ourselves, it’s the first World Cup for some of the players, we want to make sure that they do enjoy the experience.
Australia continue their domination of New Zealand. They have had the wood over their neighbours and tonight was no different. A 60-run margin won’t help New Zealand’s NRR too. Chasing 149, they lost Plimmer early and only Amelia Kerr was able to force the pace on this wicket. The others struggled and the asking rate mounted. Bates an example, she was scratchy and got out after eating up 27 balls.
Australia kept it simple and everyone did their job. Schutt, Molineux and Sutherland never left the stumps and that’s why there were so many bowled dismissals. Apart from a couple of drops in the field from Australia, their bowling performance was top drawer. They remain the team to beat in this competition. New Zealand who hammered India have been given a reality check by the World Champs. Who’s going to stop this Australian side.
The win was a result of a supreme all-round effort from Australia, and a solid execution of plans. Their top order of Alyssa Healy, Beth Mooney and Ellyse Perry contributed heavily, and while Amelia Kerr – who ended with excellent figures of 4 for 26 – did her best to reel New Zealand back into the game, Australia’s total of 148 for 8 on a sluggish surface always felt like too tall a chase.
And so it proved as New Zealand’s batters struggled to get going. Suzie Bates hung around for a scratchy 20 off 27, while Kerr’s 29 off 31 was the only other innings of substance. While Megan Schutt, Sophie Molineux and Annabel Sutherland shared eight wickets among them, it was Megan Schutt’s outstanding spell of 3 for 3 that pinned New Zealand down. Megan Schutt took home the Player-of-the-Match award for her efforts.
New Zealand’s loss puts them down to third in Group A with a negative NRR and key fixtures against Sri Lanka and Pakistan still to come, while Australia top the group after two convincing wins. Australia go two from two. The race in all probability in Group A will be between the other four teams for that second spot now.
Australia put one foot in the semi-finals with a dominant 60-run victory over neighbours New Zealand in Sharjah, and in the process recorded their 13th straight win in T20I World Cups. The result means Australia have two wins from two with a healthy net run-rate of 2.524 – they are also the only unbeaten side in the group. For New Zealand, the margin of defeat has had a hefty impact on their net run-rate, now going below Pakistan’s as they fell to third place.