London is cooling down.

You don’t find, at the moment, people travelling with their small, portable fans, or even one of those hand fans that Jane Austen’s heroines from the Regency England would carry to the balls.

The form of the Australian team is only getting hotter at the T20 Women’s World Cup, though. After notching a comfortable six-wicket win in their last league match against India, the Aussies are all ready for their next opponent.

The West Indies’ route to the final hardly resembles Australia’s. While Australia beat South Africa, Bangladesh, the Netherlands, and Pakistan before facing its strongest rival India, the Caribbeans have just scraped through to the semifinal, to be played at the Oval on Tuesday.

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Hayley Matthews’ women, in fact, suffered a shock loss in their match, to Ireland. And that was right after losing to host England. They haven’t done that well against Australia in the recent bilateral meetings as well. They lost all the three ODIs and as many T20Is when they hosted the mighty Aussies at home just three months away.

So, the West Indies has nothing to lose. A point Matthews tried to drive home at the press conference on the eve ahead of the semifinal.

She also spoke of how the big guns in the team, like Deandra Dottin, Stafanie Taylor and herself, haven’t fired yet. There hasn’t been a fifty even between all of them. There cannot be a better platform than this to help their team.

For the Australians, all have all been delivering. With the kind of talents at its disposal, it is easily the most intimidating side in women’s cricket. That it hasn’t won an ICC World Cup, in any format, for three years should motivate it further.

Published on Jun 30, 2026