Meg Lanning Joins Elite List of Players Including Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma after T20I win vs England

Meg Lanning became the third women cricketer and sixth overall to go past 3000 Twenty20 International runs after Australia’s win against England in Adelaide.

Meg Lanning (Image credit: Cricket Australia Twitter)
By Siddharth vishwanathan | Jan 21, 2022 | 2 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

The Australian women’s cricket team continued its domination in the cricket world. In the first Twenty20 International against England in Adelaide, Tahlia McGrath and Meg Lanning were the stars in Australia’s win in Adelaide. McGrath took three wickets and smashed 91 to complete a brilliant all-round performance. But, it was Meg Lanning who stole the show with a brilliant fifty. Her captaincy has taken Australia to the next level in world cricket.

But, during the course of her knock, Meg Lanning entered an elite list of batters. She became the third woman batter to reach 3000 runs in Twenty20 Internationals. When one extends it to the men, she is the sixth cricketer. Lanning joins Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Martin Guptill, Suzie Bates, and Stafanie Taylor to go past 3000 runs.

Among all the batters in the list, Martin Guptill and Rohit Sharma have the most hundreds with two and four respectively. Lanning and Taylor are the only batters to smash two centuries.

Read – Beth Mooney undergoes jaw surgery, to miss Women’s Ashes

PlayerMatchesRunsAverageStrike-Rate50s100s
Suzie Bates125334429.59110.18211
Martin Guptill112329932.66136.71202
Virat Kohli95322752.04137.9290
Rohit Sharma119319733.3140.28264
Stafanie Taylor111312135.87101212
Meg Lanning114300736.22115.74142

Meg Lanning and the Australia dominance

Lanning is third in the list of the most runs in Twenty20 Internationals. In 114 matches, she has 3007 runs at an average of 36. Mithali Raj of India has the highest average with 37 while Lanning is joined by Beth Mooney with an average of 36.

After having won the toss, Australia opted to bowl in Adelaide. England’s openers – Tammy Beaumont and Danielle Wyatt gave England a flying start. They put up 82 runs in the first ten overs. While they were trying to take the game away from the hosts, debutant Alana King provided with the first breakthrough. She dismissed Beaumont by taking an easy return catch.

Later, all-rounder Natalie Sciver and Wyatt added another 59 runs off 38 to help the team progress further and keep Australia under the pressure. However, Australia all-rounder Tahlia McGrath had other plans as she dismissed both the batters in the same over. With this, the pace has become slow and England put up 169 runs in their allotted 20 overs. Wyatt top-scored with 70 off 54. McGrath picked up 3 wickets for 26 as well.

While chasing, Alyssa Healy got out very cheaply. But, Tahlia McGrath came to bat at No.3 and started to steady the ship with Lanning. They were 58 for 1 in eight overs when both of them scored three boundaries from the ninth over.

However, they managed 15 runs from Sarah Glenn’s over. Meanwhile, McGrath smashed a six against Freya Davies in the next over to score 12 more runs. With this, they successfully put pressure on England players. The visitors failed to restrict them as Tahlia McGrath scored her maiden T20I fifty while batting at number three.