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‘Teams are catching up and going past us’ – Lanning
Australia Women’s captain Meg Lanning said after her side’s eight-wicket loss in the Women’s World T20 final that other teams were catching up and even going past them. Australia had posted a competitive 148 for 5 after opting to bat but witnessed a solid opening stand of 120 from West Indies, before the match was sealed with three balls to spare. It was the first time a team apart from Australia, England and New Zealand won a global tournament in women’s cricket.
“We’ve spoken about it a lot, that everyone is sort of catching up and going past, I guess,” Lanning said. “We need to keep improving to make sure we stay on top. We did that [this tournament], I think, but we weren’t good enough today to beat the West Indies. It just did not go our way today.
“There’s no easy games in women’s cricket any more. If you’re not on, not 100%, you’re not going to win. We certainly found that out at this tournament.”
Australia coach Matthew Mott felt that they fell a little short of the target that would have taken them to their fourth straight World T20 title. Australia were set for a big score when they were 92 for 2 after 12 overs but scored only 17 runs in the last three overs, as Deandra Dottin conceded only one run in the final over.
“We knew we were in for a big fight today and halfway through our batting innings I thought we’d really put our foot on it,” Mott said. “But we missed a couple of opportunities to bury the game and other teams will knock you over in that case. “I thought the Windies batted exceptionally well tonight.”
Lanning also admitted that they “needed 160-plus” to set things up for a win. Mott further said that there were still positives to be taken out of the tournament
“As you saw in the back end of our innings even when we were out of the game, we didn’t give up, and I think that’s part of the culture in this team and I think it’s exciting,” Mott said. “We didn’t get over the line tonight but we put ourselves in a position to win and in the end it’s a line ball, they can come down to a couple of key moments and we didn’t quite win them tonight.”
“It has been a tough, long road but if we won today I think we would have said what an amazing preparation we had. No excuses, I think we put our best foot forward, we were just a little bit shy of the mark today but the spirit that’s been shown in this group over the last few weeks in particular is something we’re really proud of.
“I know this group is going to be really strong for a long time and it’s great that other teams are challenging Australia. Any team could win it out of this tournament and the West Indies turning over a good side like New Zealand in the semi is a great example.”
Lanning also heaped praise on West Indies opener Hayley Matthews, who struck a 45-ball 66 to set up her side’s win.
“She’s very talented, she had a good series against us,” she said. “It was not a surprise, she played exceptionally well.”
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo