Australia's Women’s T20 World Cup dominance ends: Southern Stars' dominating run in numbers

Cricket just witnessed its biggest upset of the year and certainly one of the biggest of all time with South Africa knocking Australia out of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in the first semi-final in Dubai on Thursday. Few teams have dominated a sport across gender the way Australia have in women’s cricket, and for them to not feature in the final of an ICC event can safely be considered an upset.

What was even more stunning about Thursday’s result was the fact that it wasn’t a match that went down the wire; the Proteas ended up chasing the 135-run target down with eight wickets and nearly three overs to spare thanks to all-rounder Anneke Bosch’s unbeaten 74 off 48 balls along with skipper Laura Wolvaardt’s 42 off 37.

Australia had posted 134/5 after they were invited to bat opener Beth Mooney top-scoring for the side with a knock of 44 off 42 balls, and Aussies had pulled off remarkable victories from far worse positions. Few, however, expected the six-time T20 World Champions to be outplayed the way they were on Thursday, even if they did not have wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy leading them thanks to injury.

It was the first major event for the Australian women’s cricket team since legendary captain Meg Lanning announced her retirement from international cricket last year after guiding them to their sixth T20 world title, beating hosts South Africa in the final in Cape Town.

The ninth edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup was Healy’s first major event since she succeeded Lanning as captain, and the 34-year-old will certainly be disappointed with how things turned out for her and her team.

To give an idea as to why Australia’s failure to reach the final of the Women’s T20 World Cup is such a big deal, here are a few statistics:

— This will be only the second edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup final that will not have Australia featuring as a finalist, and only the third that will not have the Southern Stars as a winner. Australia had failed to reach the final of the 2009 edition, in which hosts England defeated New Zealand in the summit clash at Lord’s. Australia would later lose the 2016 final against West Indies at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens after winning a hat-trick of titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

— Thursday’s defeat was also Australia’s first in the tournament in four years. They last time they had lost a match was in the group stage against India in the 2020 edition. The Women in Blue defeated the tournament hosts by 17 runs in Sydney, though the Aussies would later wallop the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side in the final in front of a packed Melbourne Cricket Ground to win their fifth title.

— Since their last defeat against India in Sydney in 2020, Australia would go on to win their next 15 matches in a row in the T20 World Cup, including four in the group stage of the current edition in the UAE, the latest of which was their nine-run victory over India in Sharjah.

— Australia are the most successful team in the history of the Women’s T20 World Cup in terms of wins, winning 40 out of the 49 matches that they have played till date including a Super Over win against arch-rivals England in the group stage of the 2010 edition in the West Indies.

— The Southern Stars also have the best success rate in  the history of the tournament, their win/loss ratio standing at 4.333.