Women’s World T20: Australia claim title

Two years ago, in the World Twenty20 semi-final, England suffered a humiliation at the hands of Australia, a six-run loss, courtesy of a collapse that saw them lose seven wickets for 60 runs. In the interim they have changed their captain, blooded new players and won a World Cup.

Even so there was a sense of deja vu today as they subsided from 30-1 to 105 all out, the equation this time nine wickets lost for 75 runs. Once again, it was the old enemy Australia who were their nemesis, storming to their fourth World T20 title by eight wickets.

For Australia it was their young leg-spinner Georgia Wareham who unexpectedly stole the show in her first ever outing against England, finishing with 2-11, a catch and a direct hit run-out to her name. Ashleigh Gardner (33*) and Meg Lanning (28*) then shared a 62-run partnership, Lanning stroking the winning single through the off-side after Gardner punished two huge sixes over Kirstie Gordon’s head to ensure the victory came in style, with 29 balls to spare.

Their under-par showing in the final completes what has been a difficult World Twenty20 with the bat for England, only Amy Jones finishing in the top ten tournament run-scorers. For Australia, meanwhile, the challenge was always to live up to pre-tournament expectations which put them as clear favourite: today’s clinical victory shows they have done just that.

Asia Cup T20

A thunderstorm and a Mahmudullah squall came in India’s way but a calm chase from Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli helped India make light work of their chase of 121 that brought them their sixth Asia Cup Title.

Dhawan and Kohli added 94 runs for the second wicket before MS Dhoni who walked in bat with India needing 22 off 14 balls, quite fittingly, polished off the chase with an unbeaten six ball 20 as India won with seven balls to spare. Kohli credentials in run chases received another fillip as finished unbeaten on 41. Halfway through the protracted game, India were left with scoring at eight runs per over.

They were denied in the second over as Rohit Sharma was snaffled by Soumya Sarkar at slip off Amin Hossain as Bangladesh kept things tight upfront. Dhawan and Kohli took stock of the situation till the fourth over, before wading into new comer Abu Hider for three fours to kickstart the chase. Shakib gave away 15 runs in the next over. Dhawan helped himself to a half century, even as the Bangladesh bowlers at times tried to do too much, and paid the price.

Shikhar Dhawan was named as the man of the match and Sabbir Rahman was names as the man of the tournament for maximum runs. Virat Kohli was names as the coolest player of the match. This was India’s sixth Asia cup title and overall 10^th win in T20s this year out of 11 matches. India also ranked No 1 in T20s. With World Cup going to start after a week time, this is right time for India as they got right combination in team.