Cape Town: Australia are Womens T20 World Cup champions once again after they denied South Africa in front of a packed home crowd at Newlands in Cape Town on Sunday.
Beth Mooney top-scored with 74* as the worlds top-ranked team posted 156/6, and a brilliant bowling display saw South Africa stifled in their chase, with the Proteas falling 20 runs short of their target.
Their victory means Australia have now won six Womens T20 World Cup titles, and they have completed a three-peat under the captaincy of Meg Lanning, winning in 2018, 2020 and now 2023.
Tasked with defending a target of 157, Australias bowlers throttled the scoring rate of South Africas openers at the start of the reply, conceding just 22 runs in the Powerplay and with in-form Tazmin Brits sent back to the dugout by the electric Darcie Brown.
A Brown catch saw Marizanne Kapp dismissed for a run-a-ball 11 off Ash Gardner as South Africa struggled to up the scoring rate, with 105 runs were still required at drinks with ten overs remaining.
The brilliance of Laura Wolvaardt threatened to bring South Africa back into the game as she hit big shot after big shot to surge to 61 from 48 balls.
But Megan Schutt removed Wolvaardt and Jess Jonassen cleaned up the dangerous Chloe Tryon (25 from 23) as the rate of scoring proved too much for South Africa in the death overs.
And Australia saw it out comfortably in the end, winning by 19 runs to add yet more silverware to the teams bulging trophy cabinet.
(With UNI inputs)
