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Meg Lanning‘s incredible efforts with the willow steered Australia to continue their unbeaten run defeating South Africa by five wickets at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on Tuesday.
Chasing 272, Australia didn’t have a good start, losing the wickets of openers – Alyssa Healy and Rachel Haynes – to be reduced to 45/2 by the 11th over. However, Lanning led from the front and steadied the innings with her controlled play.
Along with Beth Mooney (21) and Tahlia McGrath (32), Lanning formed crucial stands of 60 and 93, respectively. The Aussie skipper smashed her 15th ODI century and stayed unbeaten at 135 to help Australia complete the run chase with 28 balls to spare and register their sixth successive win of the tournament.
Earlier, half-centuries from Laura Wolvaardt and Sune Luus assisted South Africa to post a competitive total on the board in their allotted 50 overs. While skipper Luus scored 52 off 51 balls, opening batter Wolvaardt fell short of 10 runs from hitting a hundred.
“We thought it was a par score, and we certainly felt like we were in the game because the ball was coming on nicely towards the back end of the first innings. We felt like we could chase it. It was a fresh wicket today. There have been good wickets and had some world-class batters as well. We broke the back of it (chase) through the middle, which gave us nice little breathing space, I still think we gave away too many chances between batters, including myself, which we don’t need to, and that’s something we can work on,” said Lanning after the match.
Here is how Twitter reacted:
15th ODI hundred. Meg Lanning is the 🐐#vicsdoitbetter #CWC22 pic.twitter.com/GD5AvYwoiC
— Victorian Cricket Team (@VicStateCricket) March 22, 2022
Who gona stop #TeamAustralia at #CWC22 😳 To hot to trot Meg Lanning & co.. 👏💃🤸🏽 pic.twitter.com/4r8SgzuiXC
— Danny Morrison (@SteelyDan66) March 22, 2022
Pretty good! GOAT of run chases? https://t.co/AmnpZAB4WN
— Isa Guha (@isaguha) March 22, 2022
Meg Lanning has 3 centuries in Women's World Cup while chasing, while no one else has more than 1. #AUSvSA
— Kausthub Gudipati (@kaustats) March 22, 2022
One of the greatest ever batters – Meg Lanning. 15 tons in 97 innings and average of nearly 54 in ODIs. Fine leader too
— Sarang Bhalerao (@bhaleraosarang) March 22, 2022
— Anna Lanning (@annalanning) March 22, 2022
Meg Lanning fell three short of a century vs. India; today she goes on to notch up her fifteenth ODI century. Captain leading from the front!#SAvAUS #CWC22
— Prajakta (@18prajakta) March 22, 2022
A brilliant captain's knock 👏#CWC22
— ICC (@ICC) March 22, 2022
Highest successful Women's World Cup chases:
278 AUS v IND Auckland 2022
272 AUS v SA Wellington 2022
258 AUS v SL Bristol 2017Highest scores in Women's WC chases:
152* Meg Lanning v SL 2017
135* Meg Lanning v SA 2022
112 Meg Lanning v NZ 2013#CWC22 🇦🇺— Fox Sports Lab (@FoxSportsLab) March 22, 2022
100s in ODI run chases for AUS
1x: 17 players
2x: 7 players
3x: MBevan, MClarke, KRolton
4x: Steve Smith
5x: Aaron Finch, David Warner, Shane Watson
6x:
7x: Mark Waugh
8x: Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting
9x:
10x: MEG LANNING@AusWomenCricket #AUSvSA #CWC22
— Swamp (@sirswampthing) March 22, 2022
Meg Lanning – The mega star of Women's cricket, 10 hundreds while chasing from 53 matches – unbeaten 135 runs from 130 balls as Australia chase down 272 runs from 45.2 overs and make it 5 out 5 in #CWC22. pic.twitter.com/ZkpImi06u5
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) March 22, 2022