Perry stars as Aussie women win final thriller
Ellyse Perry took three wickets and held her nerve in a tense last
over as Australia beat New Zealand by just three runs in a thrilling
women's World Twenty20 final.
With the White Ferns needing 14 off the last over, Perry - backed up
by fine fielding from Rene Farrell and Shelley Nitschke - didn't give up
a boundary and the pace bowler finished with impressive figures of three
wickets for 18 runs from her maximum four overs.
Arch-rivals
Victory came just hours after Australia's men's team had lost in the
corresponding final to arch-rivals England. The result was tough on
Sophie Devine, whose 38 not out off 35 balls rescued New Zealand from a
top order collapse to give them a shot at victory just a year after they
were beaten in the final to England at Lord's.
New Zealand, chasing a modest 109 for victory after holding their
rivals to 103 for six, slumped to 29 for four inside eight overs.
"We believed our total was going to be enough," said Australia
captain Alex Blackwell. "I know our bowling attack has the
level-mindedness to get through whatever challenge was in front of
them," she added.Perry, the player of the match, said: "From all the
games we've played against New Zealand, they never give up and nor do we
so we were all expecting it to go down to the wire."
Also an Australian international football player, Perry said of her
final over: "It's a fantastic opportunity to win a World Cup for your
country rather than lose it. That's how you have to approach things like
that.
"I feel very grateful to Alex for believing I could do it and I felt
I had the support of my team which was really obvious in the fielding of
Rene and Shelley down on the boundary."
Disappointment
Australia men's captain Michael Clarke put aside his own
disappointment to watch the women's final along with some of his
team-mates and Blackwell said: "That was fantastic, to have Michael
Clarke and a lot the boys watching us.
"I think that really helped us stay in the game and fight to win this
world cup for Australia."
New Zealand captain Aimee Watkins was left to rue her side's batting
after fine work by the White Ferns' attack.
"It's obviously disappointing. We bowled really well and I thought
after that we deserved to win the game. But we lost early wickets, had
too many dot balls through the middle period and we dug ourselves into a
hole. We just left our launch too late." BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Monday (AFP)
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