Eng-W vs Aus-W: Meg Lanning bags the highest individual score in women’s T20I 

The Australia captain Meg Lanning played the innings of her lifetime during the first T20I match of the Women’s T20 leg of the Ashes against England played at County Ground, Chelmsford on Friday and scored the highest individual score in T20Is for women, beating her own record.

After losing the early wicket of Alyssa Healy for four runs, Lanning came to the crease and played with positive intent right from word go. She timed the ball very well and created a lot of pressure on the England bowlers from the outset.

The Aussie wonder woman reached her fifty off 24 balls and took the England bowling apart with some classy strokes. Lanning continued her aggressive approach to reach her century off 51 balls and remained not out on 133 off 63 balls with 17 fours and seven sixes with a strike rate of 211.11.

Lanning led from the front and helped Australia post a massive total of 226 for 3.The Australian women restricted England to 133 for 9 and thus won the match by 93 runs.

It was a dominating performance by Lanning's side who have retained the Ashes after whitewashing the ODI series, drawing the one-off Test match and then winning the first T20I to take an unassailable lead in the points system that decides the women's Ashes. Lanning was named the player of the match for her brilliant knock.

The Australia captain had scored 126 against Ireland in 2014 during the ICC Women’s World T20 held in Bangladesh. She had hit 126 off 65 balls with 18 fours and four sixes in that innings. Sterre Kalis of Netherlands had equaled the record, scoring 126* against Germany in 2019 while the experienced Suzie Bates made 124* against South Africa in a T20I tri series in 2018.

Danielle Wyatt of England scored 124 against India in 2018. She scored the runs during the league match of a tri-series that had also included Australia. Beth Mooney, also of Australia, made 117* against England in 2017 while Shandre Fritz of South Africa had remained not out on 116 against the Netherlands in 2010. These are the top scorers in an innings in women's T20Is.