Unsurprisingly, the bookies were right – the odds this morning on Australia winning this match were 1/25, meaning that if you’d placed a £25 bet, you’d have walked away with just £1 in profit. Gambling? It’s not worth it kids – you’d make more money working in McDonalds!
An official crowd of just over 10,000 (it is unclear if that number included the inflatable kangaroos?) saw Australia smite the West Indies at The Oval to reach an 8th T20 World Cup final.
The only real drama of the afternoon centred around Deandra Dottin, who fainted during the anthems and had to be airlifted from the field by her teammates. And because this is cricket, we were obviously given no information whatsoever about what had happened or how serious it was. Members of the press corps with access to Getty scanned their photo feeds for any titbit to be found, whilst others attempted to get something from the West Indies management on the ground; but until Dottin finally re-emerged with a bat in hand, my pet goldfish had a better idea what was going on that I did. And he died in 1982.
Dottin’s shift might have come late, but it was a handy one, as her and Jannillea Glasgow struck 41 off the last 4 overs to at least give the West Indies total a thin silver plate of respectability, requiring the Australian’s to chase (just!) over a run-a-ball. Had Dottin been able to come in earlier, things might have been different… but they probably wouldn’t have been – Dottin has averaged just 18 this year in T20 internationals, with a highest score of 39; and it has been 18 months since she recorded a 50.
Australia had actually never successfully chased 125 before, so perhaps there would be something about that exact number that would create some jeopardy for the all-conquering Aussies?
Nope! By the end of the powerplay they were at 99% on WinHer and that’s pretty-much where they stayed. There was a teeny blip after Ellyse Perry played out 5 dots before running a single and deciding to exit stage right with what the Aussie media manager termed “quad awareness” – a strange line perhaps, but it least it was “a line”, which is more than we’d had about Dottin!
Beth Mooney (61*) hit her 2nd undefeated half century of the tournament; Ash Gardner (35*) continued her da Vincian renaissance with the bat, looking in ominous form ahead of the final; and Australia won with 7 overs to spare. Whoever faces them in Sunday’s final has a heck of a job on their hands to keep them from what currently feels like an inevitable march towards the trophy.