One can almost always sniff a potential warning merely upon scrolling past Australia Women’s batting order.
You are struck by a whiff of terror when you come into bowl to Alyssa Healy, a giant at the top order. It’s like bowling to a Sehwag or Klusener or the likes. You don’t know what’s going to come next.
The middle order rests in the calmness and composure of Rachael Haynes, a tireless soldier. Then, comes the turn of the redoubtable Ellyse Perry, perhaps two cricketers rolled into one, on any given day.
On most days, merely tackling this Aussies side seems like purveying a unit comprising of members of an elite hit squad.
Destruction just looms around the corner. Anyone can get hurt at any given time.
This is exactly what happened to Australia’s biggest rivals England, as they took to their home turf in the maiden T20, never suspecting that the Aussies would wage an all-out attack in an unprecedented fashion.
What one saw in the 1st T20 between the Aussies and the English wasn’t merely a top of the rank contest between arguably, two of the best sides in Women’s cricket.
What you witnessed was a flooding of runs, Australia authoring the carnage that presided over English, in very English and therefore, familiar conditions.
But guess what?
It seemed that Healy, Perry were given a rest. It wasn’t like they couldn’t make runs. It’s that there was no need for them to do so.
Because commanding the game by a sheer instinct for domination was Meg Lanning, arguably, among the best batswoman in the game today.
If the Australians preyed upon England, garnering 226 runs, then Meg Lanning was responsible for the lion’s share.
Her 133 came off just 63 deliveries. It featured 17 boundaries and 7 sixes. She wasn’t beating fielders on every ball out there. She toyed with them.
If you thought Dhoni’s effortless whacks over mid-wicket signaled some form of mastery, then perhaps, it’s about time you witnessed Women’s cricket.
That flickish pull on Shrubsole over deep mid-wicket that brought up her hundred cannot be taught in coaching manuals.
The square cut behind point administered on Brunt in the 15th over reminded you of Michael Clarke. Very soft hands.
Yet, immediately, the castrator of hopes would take over from the smooth, workman-like collector of runs.
Was she out of time or running late to catch a flight on which her life depended? No.
Was there a gathering more important than the uncontrollable excitement of a T20 that the captain had to attend to?
No.
But do the math. Lanning batted only for a little over 10 overs playing in a carefree, majestic manner.
If runs were like flowers, then a wild Australian plucked them all. The English garden left rampaged by an intruder who sought delight in plucking lilies, roses, and whatnot leaving behind only thorns.
None, it could be said, not the charismatic Sophie Ecclestone, the irrepressible Anya Shrubsole and not even the unputdownable Katherine Brunt would’ve expected the storm that struck England.
They were merely contesting in a game, their explosive talents rendered powerless.
A few months ago, Hollywood released a daunting action-adventure sea-saga. It was called the Meg, based on a giant killer shark that seeks pleasure in restoring to killer instincts.
It could be said, for the carnage one saw at Chelmsford, England were consumed as a light evening snack by a very different Meg, whose canine power came from a bat.
One with which she gob-smacked one and all, with a real instinct for domination.
Of the 17 times, where a woman has lit up the scoreboard, scoring a T20 hundred, Meg Lanning commands 2 such occasions.
Yet, it could be said that her effort against the English was special beyond words. For she not only fired the highest individual score by an Australian woman in the format but also notched up the top score by any cricketer in the women’s game in a T20.
