This was Australia's fourth ICC Women's World T20 title
An all-round Australian team eased to victory against a meek English side on Sunday in the final of the ICC Women's World T20 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.
Touted to be an even encounter after England's dominating show in the semi-finals against favourites India, the Southern Stars made sure it was nothing of that sort when the match got underway.
England captain Heather Knight won the toss and opted to bat but their innings never got up and running.
The Lionesses lost opener Tammy Beaumont for 4 in the fourth over and since that, it was a flurry of wickets. Semi-final heroes Amy Jones and Natalie Sciver cheaply and it was all on Danielle Wyatt and Knight to do the repair work.
The pair did manage to manage some of the early damage inflicted by the Aussies but Wyatt fell for 43 in the 11th over, the procession began again. Knight did try to wage a lone battle and thanks to her 28-ball 25, England went past the 100-run mark and allowed themselves something to bowl out before getting all-out for 105 from 19.4 overs.
The Australia bowlers hunted in pairs with Ashleigh Gardner picking up three wickets and Georgia Wareham and Megan Schutt grabbing two-a-piece. Ellyse Perry also got one wicket to her tally.
Chasing 106 to win, Australia were off to a decent start before Alyssa Healy fell for 22 off 20 balls and her fellow opener Beth Mooney followed suit with the three-time champions's score on 44/2 from 7.1 overs.
However, after that, there was no joy for England as Ashleigh Gardner and skipper Meg Lanning held their own and guided them to a eight-wicket win with an unbeaten stand of 62 runs for the third wicket.
Gardner remained unbeaten on 33 while Lanning was not out on 28.
This was Australia's fourth World T20 title. The other three came in 2010 (West Indies), 2012 (Sri Lanka) and 2014 (Bangladesh). Other than them, only England and West Indies have won one each. The Lionesses won the inaugural edition in 2009 while the Windies women won the previous edition in India (2016).
