Australia maintained their winning start to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup with a comfortable 98-run win over the Netherlands at the Hampshire Bowl.
After opening the tournament with wins over South Africa and Bangladesh, six-time champions Australia made it three from three in Group A with a record-equalling tournament total on Saturday.
After being put in to bat first, Australia set an imposing 219-6 from their 20 overs with the Netherlands only able to muster 121-3 in response.
Beth Mooney top scored for Australia with 74 from 42 balls but had to retire hurt due to back stiffness.
Her total was complemented by solid stints from Ashleigh Gardner (58) and Georgia Wareham (41), before Kim Garth (2-20) and Annabel Sutherland (1-23) took the wickets during an unsuccessful chase for the Dutch.
Mooney earned player of the match honours and said of her enforced exit: “I’m all good. Just precautionary, probably just not used to all the bus travel we’ve been doing.
“The Southampton trip is a pretty long one, so I look forward to that again tomorrow!
How it all finished up at the Hampshire Bowl
“As an opening batter and top-order batter, your job is to score runs so, from my point of view, I did my job pretty well today.
“Had a couple of good partnerships there, first with Georgia Voll and then Ash Gardner. I thought we were very comprehensive and the bowlers did a great job restricting them to 120.”
The Netherlands have lost all three of their group games so far on their tournament debut, although Babette de Leede caught the eye in their innings with 56 not out off 57 balls on her landmark 100th T20I appearance.
Robine Rijke also celebrated reaching the same milestone.
De Leede and Sterre Kalis combined for 96 from 91 balls from the fourth over to the 19th. Kalis, dropped on 21 and 40, was bowled for 44.
“This is a massive moment for us,” de Leede said. “Australia are a quality team [so] to learn from them, see how they go about their innings, it’s just incredible.”
Australia next face Pakistan at Headingley on Tuesday evening, while the Netherlands return against South Africa in Bristol on Thursday.
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