Georgia ‘Wolf’ Wareham’s 3-20 and Meg Lanning’s unbeaten 48 off 49 balls have handed defending champions Australia an emphatic eight-wicket win over Bangladesh at the T20 World Cup.
Wareham, returning to Australia’s XI for the first time in nearly 16 months due to injuries, helped restrict Bangladesh to 7-107 after they opted to bat in slightly overcast conditions at St George’s Park on Tuesday.
Opener Beth Mooney fell for just two runs – to follow her duck against New Zealand – in pursuit of the below-par target, but Lanning and Alyssa Healy’s second-wicket 69-run stand then set up the successful chase.
While Healy fell for 37 off 36 balls, Ashleigh Gardner, who had landed a $558,000 payday at the Women’s Premier League auction on match eve, remained unbeaten on 19 off 20 balls.
The 25-year-old allrounder struck a four with 10 balls left to seal a win which took Australia to the top of the Group 1 table with four points from two games.
Wareham’s last international appearance came in October 2021 at home, before she suffered an ACL injury later that month during the WBBL which kept her on the sidelines.
“It’s pretty cool to just be back out there in Aussie colours again. Anytime I get to play for Australia — it’s pretty special,” Wareham said after the match, adding the World Cup was “always a bit of a target” in her comeback from injury.
“It was always going to be tight, I think, and I thank the selectors for backing me not having played any international cricket coming into this World Cup.
“It was pretty tough early days. I missed out on the One-day World Cup, the Ashes, Commonwealth Games in the space of 12 months, which is not ideal.
“At the start, I was watching a lot of cricket and found myself missing it a lot but after a while I knuckled down into rehab and probably stopped watching it as much, which was hard, but I had really good people around me to help me get through.”
Wareham, the 23-year-old legspinner, replaced left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen in Australia’s only change from their tournament-opening win against New Zealand in Paarl.
Introduced in the eighth over, player of the match Wareham was the last of the seven bowlers Australia deployed on the night.
She conceded a four first ball but had No.3 Sobhana Mostary lob an easy catch to Alana King off a leading edge with her next delivery.
Returning for the last of her three spells, Wareham bowled No.5 Shorna Akter and Rumana Ahmed in the 17th over.
Besides Wareham, pacer Darcie Brown stood out with the ball. She had reduced the opposition to 2-36 in the powerplay with the wickets of openers Shamima Sultana and Murshida Khatun, and finished with 4-0-23-2.
Brown almost had a third wicket when an airborne Beth Mooney couldn’t quite grasp a chance at point off captain Nigar Sultana on 44. Sultana went on to make 57.
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