CAPE TOWN: Australia won the Women’s T20 World Cup on Sunday, beating host South Africa by a comfortable 19 runs to underline its status as the best team in the world with a third straight title.
Australia has now won six of the eight T20 World Cups played.
The latest victory at Newlands came through a disciplined bowling and fielding effort from the Australians, who batted first and scored 156-6, then shut down South Africa’s batters, who never came close.
South Africa finished well short on 137-6.
Megan Schutt, Ashleigh Gardner, Darcie Brown and Jess Jonassen all took a wicket each for Australia, but it was a team effort in the field as the Aussies’ big-match temperament shone through.
Australia was playing in its seventh straight final.
Australia’s total was built on opener Beth Mooney’s 74 from 53 balls and 29 off 21 from Gardner, who was promoted to No. 3.
No one else got past 20 but it was enough.
Opener Laura Wolvaardt top-scored for South Africa with 61 from 48 and the host had a glimpse of a chance when it needed 59 off the last five overs with Wolvaardt still there.
But Schutt trapped Wolvaardt lbw in the 17th over and South Africa’s hopes of a maiden title in its first appearance in a final went with her.
Elsewhere, in men’s cricket, Tayyab Tahir made an impressive debut in the Pakistan Super League with a half-century that lifted Karachi Kings to a 66-run victory over table-toppers Multan Sultans on Sunday.
Tayyab’s brilliant 65 off 46 balls propelled Karachi to 167-3 as he shared a 109-run stand with Matthew Wade, who made a nearly run-a-ball 46.
Multan, playing their first away game after winning four out of five at home, were bowled out for 101 in 16.3 overs with Shoaib Malik (3-16) and left-arm South African spinner Tabraiz Shamsi (3-18) doing most of the damage.
James Vince provided Karachi with a whirlwind start by smashing two sixes and three fours in his blistering knock of 27 off 12 balls before he skied a catch to David Miller at mid-on after Multan captain Mohammad Rizwan won the toss and elected to field.
Tayyab and Wade then raised a century stand before both perished in fast bowler Ihsanullah’s return spell in the late overs.
Ihsanullah, the leading wicket-taker in the tournament, raised his tally to 14 in six games when he had Tayyab trapped leg before wicket off a delivery that slanted into the right-hander before uprooting Wade’s offstump with a pacey ball that was clocked at 151.4 kph.
Rizwan (29) and Shan Masood (25) provided Multan with a steady start of 41 off 30 balls before Karachi went for a successful television referral against Masood after he edged fast bowler Akif Javed and the umpire ruled in the batter’s favor.
Malik then had in-form Rilee Rossouw (7) clean bowled before holding onto a catch at mid on as Miller (7) tried a big hit against Shamsi.
