Australia scripted history after winning their sixth Women's T20 World Cup title as they beat hosts South Africa by 19 runs in the summit clash in Newlands, Cape Town, on Sunday (February 26). Beth Mooney remained the star of the match with her 74 off 53 which also earned her Player of the Match award.
Australian total dominance in the Women's cricket is no fluke, rather it has come through a process and team's star bowler Megan Schutt can't thank skipper Meg Lanning enough for that. Schutt, who put up an impressive show with the ball (1/23) in the final and took an important wicket of Laura Woolvardt, is in awe of the way Lanning has led Australia to add one more title in their trophy-studded cabinet.
Schutt, who has led Australia's pace attack over the last decade, and has been a part of six of those titles (4 T20s and 2 ODIs), was full of praise for her captain but at the same time slammed India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur for her body language remark in the semifinal clash.
"Lanning is a pretty calm character, that's what rubs on us. That's what we speak about in pre-match talks. We hold up our calm in pressure situations. Because there are a lot of those, especially in T20s. Being calm in those moments means you're going to execute better," Schutt said as quoted by Cricbuzz.
Schutt credited Lanning's calmness for the semifinal win against India specially when the chips were down and when Harmanpreet's brigade looked snatching the game away from the holders. But she couldn't hold herself from criticising Harmanpreet over her body language remark. Harmanpreet had said that Australian players' body language suggested they had given up when she was dominating the game with her absolute incredible batting to give Lanning's side a major scare. The irate Schutt called the remark 'bullshit'.
"They were cruising and we were under the pump. Collectively our last five overs were crucial. Getting a couple of wickets in there but also providing pressure on all aspects, whether it's in the field, with the ball or even body language out there. Harman said our body language was down. I'll call bullshit on that. We're just calm. We don't panic, we don't take it out on each other if there's a misfield or a dropped catch. That's where we stand out as a team. We're a team first and we know getting angry about that isn't going to do about that. So it was a collective effort."
As advice to the Indian team, she added, “Stay calm. It was wrong of Harman to follow that after (reaction after being given out). It sets the wrong precedent for those coming after. I know she was calm after that and spoke to Deepti. But the damage was done already by then. Being able to compose yourself in that situation. Of course, you've to go through lots to figure that out. We've had our own losses. Yes, we win a lot, but we've had our own clutch moments that we've lost and learned from that.”
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