The last time England faced Australia in a T20 World Cup (or, as it was then, “World T20”) final was in 2018 in Antigua. The 5 Australian players remaining from that day – Beth Mooney, Ash Gardner, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Molineux and Georgia Wareham – will have better memories than the 5 England ones – Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Amy Jones, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Heather Knight and Sophie Ecclestone. England batted first, and were bowled out for 105, with Australia cruising to victory by 8 wickets with almost 5 overs to spare.

Could England give Australia more of a run for their money batting first today?

Of course, before they could get down to business England had to perform the ancient “Amy Jones Ceremony”. For those of you who are new to this, it works a bit like the “Ceremonial First Pitch” in baseball, a long-standing tradition where a celebrity comes onto the field to throw a couple of pitches before the game proper starts. In England’s case, what happens is that Amy Jones comes out to bat for a ritual two or three balls before popping a catch to a nearby fielder, after which the match proper can begin.

No one understands why this is, or how such a tradition emerged, but simply that it must be carried out, or risk the wrath of all manner of angry gods. But thankfully it went off without a hitch – the deities were appeased, and England’s opening batters Nat Sciver-Brunt and Danni Wyatt-Hodge were able to proceed with getting the actual cricket match underway.

As we’ve said a couple of times in this tournament, Lord’s is not an easy place to bat – London Spirit General Manager Heather Knight diplomatically described it this week as “quite unique” – so you need to add 15-20 runs to any total to get a better feel for how good it is. This would put England’s 150 in the 165-170 range, which is much better than the 105 they made that day in Antigua 8 years ago; but very-much chasable for an Australian team that has been running high on confidence in this World Cup, although there were signs in the field that there were a few nerves today too.

That England got that many was down to Freya Kemp, who clearly did not get the memo about Lord’s being slow and low. Her undefeated 44 off 28 balls included more frantic thrashing than a Megadeth guitar solo, waging Holy Wars that elevated England from a projected 125-ish to the 150 they got. An innings of 44 at a Strike Rate of 157 feels like it should have been boundary after boundary; but Kemp hit just four 4s and one 6, which means she ran a lot – 14 singles and four 2s, to be precise!

She might be 21 now, but Kemp still has the bounding energy of a teenager who’s had one too many Starbursts, and although she sometimes gives the impression that she doesn’t have a clue where the ball is going, she certainly wasn’t giving up any chances today.  She has already spent about a third of her career injured – today showed how much England can ill-afford for that to be the case going forwards.

Support for Kemp came from Alice Capsey (23) who struggled a bit until she went after Ash Gardner, taking 15 from an over that went for 16 in all. In a very on-brand Capsey move, the confidence came rushing back a little too quickly, like blood to the head, and she was out trying to reverse Sophie Molineux a couple of balls later.

And of course, Nat Sciver-Brunt top-scored with 58 off 53, basically batting through the innings. It was all typical NSB efficiency; but it needed a little bit more if England were going to really get ahead of the game – 150 could have been enough; but England were going to need to bowl really well, or Australia bat really badly; and neither have been the case so far in this tournament.

England’s bowling problem is that they have a few good overs in them… and rather more poor ones – the only team they’ve bowled out in this World Cup was Sri Lanka, and that was off the final ball. If they couldn’t bowl out Ireland or Scotland, what hope did they have against Australia?

As it turned out… none!

Georgia Voll went early; though England can claim little credit for a cramped cut that she edged onto the stumps. Voll hasn’t had a great World Cup; but Australia have invested heavily in her, and her role seems to be to go hard, so they will stick by her.

Voll’s wicket, which left Australia 17-1, was pretty much as good as it got for England, as Phoebe Litchfield and Beth Mooney launched into a partnership which took the game away from England.

By the end of the powerplay it was all-but over as a contest, and the only remaining question was how hard England would make them work for the trophy?

Phoebe Litchfield (as she so often does) looked in scintillating form, right up until she didn’t; and it was Sophie Ecclestone who really got her out, even though the scorebook says “b. Dean”. Three consecutive deliveries from Ecclestone were too good for Litchfield as she tried to sweep, while Ecclestone ended up with her head in her hands wondering what she needed to do to get the wicket. The over finished with Litchfield literally slapping herself on the head with her gloves in frustration; and the next over Dean got her. The cameras inside the pavillion caught Litchfield continuing to punch herself in the head in frustration as she walked up the stairs to the dressing room. The commitment is admirable; but perhaps someone on the Aussie backroom team needs to help her find a slightly healthier way of handling it?

Dean celebrated the wicket, but England were visibly starting to deflate in the field by that stage. By the time Mooney joined Litchfield back in the dressing room, the result was inevitable; and the fuss over the Perry non-wicket should not have happened, although it does feel like Ecclestone was hard done by. It felt slightly reminiscent of the Commonwealth Games when England lost it during the bronze medal match – also under the non-leadership of NSB. On this occasion, at least Charlie Dean was there to intervene and try to calm Ecclestone down, and frankly to show the leadership that England are missing. Dean will almost certainly captain England’s next white-ball excursions against Ireland in September regardless, but (assuming she wants it) she should now be elevated to the job full-time, giving NSB the chance to focus on the thing she is actually good at – playing cricket – without the distractions of something she patently isn’t – i.e. captaincy.

England have far-from disgraced themselves in this tournament – under Charlotte Edwards they are a better team and a more likeable one. Notably there were tears at the end, which no one enjoys seeing, but which does show a degree of commitment that was absent under Jon “Walkabout” Lewis. The years under Lewis were wasted ones; those to come under Edwards will surely prove more fruitful.

As for Australia, having surrendered both World Cups in 2024 and 2025, they look rejuvenated under the leadership of Sophie Molineux. We wondered why a player who didn’t seem to quite make the team was elevated to the captaincy; we puzzled over the lengthy contract extension given to Head Coach Shelley Nitschke just weeks ago. All I can say is that someone looks pretty silly right now… and it’s not Sophie Molineux or Shelley Nitschke! (It’s me, ok – it’s me!) The natural order of the world has been restored, and Charlotte Edwards has her work cut out to find a way of unrestoring it. But you can be sure that there is no one who will work harder to do so.