ICC WT20: England Women Win T20 Cricket World Cup

ICC WT20: Brunt & Taylor Guide England To More Glory

England celebrate their win at the home of cricket.

©Action Images / Andrew Couldridge Livepic

England 86-4 (C Taylor 39no, S Taylor 23) beat
New Zealand 85 (Satterthwaite 19, Brunt 3-6, Shaw 2-17) by six wickets
Scorecard
ICC Women's World Twenty20 Final, Lord's
By John Pennington

England beat New Zealand in a world final for the second time in 2009, crushing their major rivals by six wickets to lift the inaugural ICC Women's World Twenty20 at Lord's.

Their win was first set up by a stunning bowling performance, led by Katherine Brunt who took three for six as New Zealand were bowled out for 85, and confirmed by an unbeaten 39 from Claire Taylor, the win coming with three overs to spare.

After being put in by England, New Zealand were soon in trouble when their leading tournament run-scorers Suzie Bates (1) and Aimee Watkins (2) were dismissed cheaply, Bates stumped as England's tactic of opening with off-spinner Laura Marsh found more success, and Watkins clean bowled by an inswinger from Brunt.

Brunt bowled quite beautifully and fully deserved her figures of three for six, which included two maidens, getting reward for movement and excellent discipline wih the later wickets of Rachel Priest, caught and bowled for a duck and Lucy Doolan, who reverse swept her into wicket-keeper Sarah Taylor's gloves for 14.

Taylor put in a sharp performance behind the stumps, as did the rest of the fielders, and she also picked up the catch of Sara Tsukigawa (5) late on as Jenny Gunn, who missed out on the Sydney success at the last minute, proved how important she is to the team with two wickets at the death.

There were also two wickets for Nicki Shaw, who once again turned in a big performance in a big game to have Amy Satterthwaite, whose 19 in 42 balls was the innings top score, well caught by Claire Taylor and Nicola Browne (1) bowled via her pads.

Charlotte Edwards bowled the final over of the innings with the White Ferns eight down and quickly snuffed out a late charge from Sophie Devine (ten from six balls) and Katherine Pulford (14 from ten balls) by having Pulford caught by Claire Taylor before Devine ran herself out from the final delivery taking on Lydia Greenway's throw from the deep.

There were just five boundaries hit by the New Zealanders, a testament to the pressure built up by England and some superb outfielding.

England were off to a flyer when they came out to bat, Edwards (9) and Sarah Taylor (23) helping themselves to a pair of boundaries each before Edwards was bowled by a Sian Ruck inswinger. Ruck was getting the kind of swing that Brunt was earlier, but was not able to put the ball in the right areas as Brunt had been.

The two Taylors added 20 more runs, their partnership broken when Sarah edged Pulford for a simple catch to Priest and Claire then took centre stage, just as she did against Australia.

She dominated a 31-run stand for the third wicket with Beth Morgan (6) and although Morgan was unable to see the match through this time, that partnership, and the way that Taylor accelerated just when some pressure was beginning to build, saw England to the brink.

Nicola Browne had dropped Morgan on two but she hit back to have her caught at mid-on by Sara McGlashan and shortly after Greenway was bowled by Devine for three, Taylor straight drove Browne over mid-off for the boundary that confirmed England's dominance of world cricket, adding the ICC World Twenty20 crown to their Ashes and World Cup successes.

© Cricket World 2009

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