Australia arrived at the T20 World Cup wanting to stamp their authority on the tournament.
Hurting after back-to-back semi-final exits in white-ball tournaments and with a new leader in Sophie Molineux, Australia were placed in the so-called ‘group of death’ alongside fellow title fancies India and South Africa.
Fifteen days later they have emerged unscathed on the other side, winning five from five group games and finishing with a remarkable net run rate of +3.882, smashing the previous record, England’s +2.860 in 2023.
With Sunday’s showdown at Lord’s deciding which of India or South Africa would advance alongside Australia, Ellyse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner took control of a chase of 171 in devastating fashion, cruising home with an over to spare.
Reflecting in the aftermath of the match, Perry said it was not the 5-0 record that was most pleasing for Australia, but rather the manner in which they had obtained it.
This is the third consecutive T20 World Cup tournament that Australia have gotten through the group stage without dropping a match – their last non-knockout defeat was the opening game in 2020 – but the manner of their wins this time have been telling, by margins of 65 runs, nine wickets, 98 runs, 113 runs and six wickets.
“At the moment, and probably through the whole tournament, our approach has really been about the style of cricket that we want to play,” Perry said.
“Walking into today’s match, we knew that was going to be the biggest test so far against such a great side playing for a lot today in terms of the context of the competition.
“For us to absorb a lot of the pressure that we did and then still come out and play with a bit of freedom in important times in the match when it really counted was awesome.
“And I think a real feature about our tournament so far is that every player has played a really important role and has really embraced that at different points in time.
“Today was a great test and really nice to come through it the way we did.”
India went into the innings break on Sunday buoyed by a rollicking finish with the bat that saw Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues add 36 runs from the final two overs to lift their side to 4-170.
That came after Australia had restricted their rivals to a well below-par 134 from the first 18 overs, and two dropped catches that went for six alongside a misfield on the boundary had contributed 16 of those 36 late runs.
It was Perry who gathered Australia together in a huddle before they walked from the field, pointing out that Harmanpreet’s late salvo had only served to demonstrate how gettable their target could be.
“I said (that) I thought we really controlled the tempo of that bowling innings incredibly well,” Perry said.
“Even though we weren’t taking wickets, I just thought the way that we ran through overs, responded to any kind of challenge that India’s batters put to us … for all intents and purposes, I thought for 18 overs of that innings we did exceptionally well.
“The nature of T20 cricket is that teams will get away at different points in time, and I think it’s just about absorbing that, accepting it, and then looking at the next opportunity, which was, at that point to go out and play really freely with the bat and enjoy batting on a great surface.
“We just spoke about that and making sure that we really recognised how great most of that bowling innings was and the position that we were in to hopefully win the match.”
That target still appeared distant 12 overs into Australia’s chase, when the required run rate crept up to almost 11 an over and the top three batters were back in the dugout, leaving 86 runs needed from the final eight overs.
But Perry and Gardner flipped that pressure back onto India, finding the boundary early in the overs and ultimately forcing a series of sloppy bowling and fielding errors from their rivals.
“The way that Ash came out and her approach to her innings was really important in the context of the game,” Perry said.
“I thought she shifted the momentum beautifully … we spoke a lot about targeting the first couple of balls of the over, and I think she did that incredibly well, and it just gave us some momentum in the chase.
“If you can wrestle the momentum of an over at the start when you’re batting, it makes it really hard for the bowler to defend the last three or four balls.
“So that was a real feature and highlight of Ash’s innings and just the blueprint that we went about with the chase.”
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026
Australia squad: Sophie Molineux (c), Ashleigh Gardner (vc), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Nicola Carey, Kim Garth, Lucy Hamilton, Grace Harris, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham. Travelling reserve: Tahlia Wilson
Australia’s Group 1 fixtures
June 13: beat South Africa by 65 runs
June 17: beat Bangladesh by nine wickets
June 20: beat Netherlands by 98 runs
June 24: beat Pakistan by 113 runs
June 28: beat India by six wickets
Semi-final 1: Australia v West Indies, The Oval, London, June 30, 11:30pm AEST
Semi-final 2: England v South Africa, The Oval, London, July 2 (3:30am July 3 AEST)
Final: Lord’s, London, July 5 (12:30am July 6 AEST)
Click here for the full tournament schedule
All matches will be broadcast on Amazon’s Prime Video
