England undone at the last as Australia reclaim their T20 crown

The mental gymnastics began at the innings break. England had set Australia 151 to chase, a score which was clearly under par. A cursory recollection to last Sunday would have revealed that Australia had chased down 171 with an over to spare at this ground against India.

But perhaps, the punters mused over their picnics and Pimms, perhaps the pitch isn’t that great. Or perhaps we can take a couple of early wickets and put them under pressure. 

These weren’t unreasonable cognitive contortions on the face of it. A glorious afternoon in the sun at Lord’s can lead to all kinds of flights of fancy. But by the time the fourth over finished, with Australia 45-1, anyone holding out hope for England would have been doing the psychological equivalent of performing in the Cirque du Soleil.

The logic behind sporting rivalries is that they contain tension. There is supposed to be a back and forth between the two sides that generates a fierce kind of competitiveness. Yet as Australia thrashed England on their own turf, winning by seven wickets with 17 balls remaining, it felt hard to consider this as a sporting rivalry as opposed to a historical one. This was a rivalry animated by the kind of mutual disgruntlement between the two nations which once led an Australian woman to turn around and gloat at me that Australia had retained the Men’s Ashes as the England women’s football team knocked Australia out in the semi-final of the World Cup. 

The reality is the toughest thing the Australia side were subjected to on Sunday afternoon was a half an hour pre-game performance from Rita Ora. 

For a long time, this Australia side looked totally unbeatable. Between 2018 and 2023, they won every white-ball cricket tournament available to them, including three consecutive T20 victories. 

It has been something of a shell shock couple of years for them then to have, until this Sunday afternoon, not been the holders of either white-ball trophy. At the 2024 T20 World Cup, they were defeated by South Africa at the semi-final stage, whilst it was India who vanquished them in the 50-over competition a year later.

Teams were getting the memo that Australia could be got at. Everyone, it appears, except England. 

England’s World Cup has not been one of particularly stringent tests, but they deserve great credit for making it appear that way by how they played. That is why it was so strange to see them freeze when they were put into bat by Australia, after losing the toss. They looked scared to attack the ball, and were ponderous between the wickets. They struggled to build any kind of partnership, aside from Nat Sciver-Brunt and Freya Kemp’s 80-run stand. But even as they tried to accelerate towards the end of their innings, they appeared to leave it far too late with Dani Gibson and Sophie Ecclestone still to come. 

Georgia Voll, by contrast, only lasted six balls but the response was the kind of swashbuckling batting performance that England were desperately lacking. Australia’s opening three batters went at a strike rate over 130, something only Kemp managed for England.

Meanwhile England fans mournfully sang “never mind I’ll find someone like you” during the ICC-mandated Adele karaoke break early in the visitors’ innings, presumably reflecting on Beth Mooney and the ability to have an opening batter and wicketkeeper who can actually do both. Amy Jones, England’s opening batter and wicketkeeper, brought up her fifth single-figure score in six innings of the tournament in the final. Mooney scored 64 from 49 balls, only being undone by Ecclestone with Australia needing 11 more runs. Any notion that it was hard to score boundaries on the Lord’s pitch was put to bed almost immediately.

England have been better this World Cup than they have been in the recent past editions, and an appearance in the final would have been a reasonable aim prior to the tournament beginning. They have looked fitter, stronger and better in the field. Their bowling attack has been well-balanced. Danni Wyatt-Hodge was in the finest nick of her career, at least in the group stage. Kemp has been a power hitting revelation, with her 44 from 28 being a bright spot in England’s innings. 

However, Australia have shown over the years that bright spots here and there are not enough. There is a bar and they choose the height that it is set at. On this evidence, England are nowhere near meeting it, even if there is more to this team than what they showed in this final.

England play a one-off Test against India on this pitch next week, with one eye on next year’s big event. Australia will be back on these shores in 2027 to contest the Women’s Ashes, a trophy England have not won since 2013/14. Head coach Charlotte Edwards was brought in to try and steady the English ship so they did not embarrass themselves at a home World Cup, which she has managed. Her next challenge will be to show that this can become an actual sporting rivalry once more.

Photograph by Alastair Grant/AP