Updated ,first published
Six years after trading dance moves with Katy Perry in the middle of the MCG, Sophie Molineux joked that her celebrations as a World Cup-winning captain would be a little more reserved.
“Teeth and bed, that’s what I’m going to do, clean my teeth and go to bed in the next hour or so,” she quipped. “I feel incredibly grateful playing cricket for a living with some of my best mates, and to experience a day like today and walk away a World Cup champion, you’ve got to celebrate it.
“I’m not sure I’ll be leading the charge, I think I’ve grown up a little bit, well I hope I have, but I’m sure everyone will have a lot of fun.”
As the London twilight faded, Molineux did indeed celebrate in memorable fashion, channelling Shane Warne’s balcony antics after winning an Ashes series from 0-1 down in England in 1997. It was nothing less than she deserved.
In January, Molineux was named captain of an Australian side that had failed to reach each of the past two World Cup finals. She was standing on the shoulders of giants: her predecessors were Alyssa Healy and Meg Lanning, after all.
With a spotty fitness record and more notoriety for celebrating Australian victories than for taking wickets or making runs to secure them, the choice of Molineux surprised many.
That surprise soon turned to scepticism when a back injury forced her out of the team soon after she took the captaincy. When she returned on a tour of the West Indies, Molineux led from the rear, neither batting nor bowling in some games. This was not the Australian way, and Molineux privately shared those doubts.
Teammates, though, were largely united behind Molineux. They saw her combination of tactical awareness, care for others and impish sense of humour as the ideal glue for a team of world-class talents. They saw a leader.
At Lord’s on Sunday night, Molineux fronted what was possibly the most dominant Australian World Cup performance in a crowded field. Unbeaten across the T20 tournament, they were never troubled. England, the hosts, were never in the final.
“It’s been a whirlwind, when I took over it was a bit messy at the start to be fair, captaining a couple of games and getting injured, shock,” Molineux said. “There was a few doubts internally, a few doubts externally, but what I’ve learned is you just have to keep believing. I’m incredibly lucky that people believed in me, and I believe in this team and this group. It’s really satisfying.
“When I did miss those games at the start of the summer after just being announced captain, it probably made me feel like it might not work out. But I just think I’m so incredibly lucky with the support I’ve had, not over just the last six months, but it’s been 10 years in this team.
“The group have been incredible in terms of being open to anything and being flexible. We’ve grown and evolved more in the last six months than I’ve ever seen. So I’m extremely proud.”
Raised in Bairnsdale in the east of Victoria, Molineux has brought a regional sense of perspective to the team. Among her fellow Cup winners she pointed out the 20-year-old left-armer and Bundaberg product Lucy Hamilton, who took the first wicket in the final.
“She’s got a really lovely nature where she just wants to keep learning, she just wants to get better. She’s really driven, and the girls just love her. She’s a country kid from Bundaberg, so from Bundaberg to Lord’s,” Molineux said.
“Her parents flew over, they booked their ticket about 48 hours ago, took them 47 hours to get here, and now they’re going to turn around tomorrow and go back. It’s special for people like Lucy.”
Men at Work’s Land Down Under rang out at Lord’s as Australia completed their T20 final hammering of an England side that will always wonder about a timid batting display in the decider.
Ellyse Perry was at the crease with Ash Gardner for the winning runs, which arrived with a whopping 17 balls and seven wickets to spare. Perry now has nine world titles plus a Commonwealth Games gold to her credit, and Australia have seven T20 World Cups from eight finals.
While this was not a great finale in terms of spectacle, Australia re-proved themselves a great team by dominating from the start.
The seasoned Beth Mooney won the match award for her perfectly-paced 64 from 49 balls, while Phoebe Litchfield shone in her first final with 48 off 35 and the only two sixes of the chase.
But the game was won largely with the ball and in the field, as captain Molineux marshalled her troops expertly to prevent England from ever gaining much momentum with the bat after they were sent in.
Swing bowler Kim Garth and Hamilton shared seven overs between them for a mere 39 runs while claiming a wicket apiece. From 2-32 then 4-70, England were never able to impose themselves.
England skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt is one of the most destructive batters in the game, but under the unrelenting spotlight of a Lord’s final and in the face of those early wickets, she found herself playing without anything like her best attacking intent.
Her stand of 80 was ultimately dominated by Freya Kemp, who clipped her way to 44 from 28 balls, which was much closer to the strike rate that Sciver-Brunt (58, 53 balls) might have expected to manage.
“I could’ve tried to take on the game a bit earlier, but I wasn’t finding the wicket that easy, to be honest,” she said. “I wanted to play through the innings yes, but be a little freer in trying to find the boundary. In my head it didn’t feel that easy for people to come in and start hitting boundaries straight away.”
That, in essence, is where the final was won and lost. England have had a fine tournament to advance to the big day, but they have never had quite the same depth of talent as Australia: Sciver-Brunt knew that.
By contrast, Australia’s chase was characterised by fearless aggression from the moment Georgia Voll creamed a first ball boundary, in the knowledge that few sides in history have boasted a deeper batting lineup than this one.
England had one particularly sour moment when Sophie Ecclestone was denied a catch off Perry, but by then the game was well and truly decided.
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Daniel Brettig is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via X.From our partners
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