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| Meg Lanning celebrates her century against South Africa in Wellington. (ICC/Getty Images) |
When Meg Lanning made her way to the centre at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, Shabnim Ismail was in the middle of a fiery opening spell. The South African speedster had found her rhythm, found some swing and was making full use of the pacy Wellington pitch.
In pursuit of 272, the six-time World Cup winners had slipped to 14 for 1 after their destructive opener Alyssa Healy had been nicked off by Ismail.
“Hard hands from Healy, soft hands from Chetty,” Nasser Hussain had described the dismissal on air – Healy pushing at a delivery that shaped away and melted into the gloves of a diving Trisha Chetty.
It was the kind of wicket that would have excited Ismail, just enough to channel the ‘demon’ within.
Lanning had walked into the middle of a cauldron. South Africa’s biggest threat had her tail up. The slips were looming, the fielders in the inner circle were chattering, and Ismail had a visible snarl: the big fish was out in the middle, and she wanted nothing more than to take her down.
Another fast delivery, just short of a length that shaped away had Lanning feeling for the ball. There were ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from behind the stumps. They sensed uncertainty. South Africa were in with a chance.
A couple of leaves and a tentative prod forward later, Lanning was off the mark.
At the other end she faced a stern examination from Marizanne Kapp whose tight lines had her flirting outside off stump on more than one occasion. As the ball slipped past her outside edge, Lanning let out an audible “Oooooh!” and when a nip-backer caught her inside edge, out came a frustrated “Nah!”
When Kapp strayed wide, Lanning threaded the delivery past Mignon du Preez and Laura Wolvaardt, stationed barely eight meters apart at point, to pick up her first boundary. Then, when she over-pitched, Lanning unleashed a powerful square drive. She met the ball right under her eyes, nice stride forward, weight going into the shot and hands extended through the ball. It was her trademark.
Her 17th delivery should have ended her day. It was another corker from Ismail that had her chasing the ball outside off stump. For a split second her hands left the little box they were in and followed the path of the ball as it snaked away from her after pitching. It was just enough for the ball to catch the outside edge of the bat and fly in the direction of Chetty and Sune Luus in the cordon. But the 'keeper was wrong-footed and before she could react the ball had raced off to the boundary.
Despite those early fours, including one menacing flick over mid-on off Ismail, it wasn’t until the 44th ball of her innings that Lanning looked in complete control of proceedings: when she deposited an inswinger from Ayabonga Khaka – who had caused her some problems until then – over long-on for six. Nothing or no one could dislodge her now. South Africa had lost their chance – Lanning had bolted!
“Sometimes you need a bit of luck, and I felt like I got a bit of that today. You’ve just got to try and make the most of it,” she said in the post-match press conference.
"I thought myself and Rachael (Haynes) sort of negotiated those first ten overs reasonably well. You are always going to play and miss a couple and get a bit of luck every now and again. But it required a little bit of restraint and patience, I think, just to make sure we got through that period, which we were able to do.”
Once that burst had ended, the game was far too easy. Lanning “broke the back of the chase” and then shifted to autopilot.
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Lanning’s runs sneak up on you. They come at break-neck speed, even though she never appears in a hurry. Most often, it doesn’t even look like she’s trying.
I mean, how in the world did she score that many? She only just came in to bat!
With Alyssa Healy and Lizelle Lee, every ball is an event in itself. As a viewer, you expect something to happen. With Lanning, that’s rarely the case. She collects her runs with a caress here, a glide there, a touch here and prod there.
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| Meg Lanning plays the ball through the off-side. (ICC/ Getty Images) |
That is not to say her strokeplay is unremarkable. It's actually quite the opposite.
One can get lost in Lanning’s grace. Her poise at the crease, her balance as she strikes the ball, the efficiency of her movements and the correctness of her technique are a sight for sore eyes. It's effortless. It's magical. It's classic Meg Lanning.
Blink, and you’ll miss her fifty. Blink again, and she would’ve raced past hundred. And when you stop and rub your eyes in wonder, she would’ve helped her team chase down a total that was meant to be challenging. Instead, she makes it seem like child’s play.
She's a high school bully in a primary school playground.
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Ismail was seething. She was in the middle of likely the fastest spell in the tournament. She had the Australian captain, who had already registered a hundred, hopping around, slashing wildly outside off stump, trying to catch up with the ball. She should have had her caught at slip. She should have seen the back of her. It was the second time in the day that the fielders had let her down. She deserved better.
At the other end, Lanning stared down the track, expressionless. She knew she was being tested. But she also knew she could get through it. Australia were so far ahead of the game that she didn’t need to try anything. The spell wouldn’t last. She could bully the rest.
Wait for the opposition to blink. Under pressure, they will flinch first.
“She was bowling quick. She didn’t bowl any bad balls really, during that period of play, and it sort of swung the momentum back in the favour of South Africa. It was great to get through that tricky little period,” she said in the post-match presentation.
After that period, Australia flourished, cantering home with 28 balls to spare. Lanning was unstoppable... A Porsche with no brakes!
She finished unbeaten on 135 off just 130 deliveries.
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Lanning’s ODI record is incredible. Only 97 matches for close to 4500 runs at an average of just under 54. She has 34 scores over fifty, 15 of which are centuries. |
| A high-school bully in a primary school playground! (ICC/ Getty Images) |
Filter those numbers down to include only chases, and it reads: 53 innings, 2558 runs, 67.31 average, 94.18 strike rate and 21 scores over fifty, including 10 hundreds.
Australia have lost only six of those matches. Lanning’s collective total in those six innings is 45.
If you are an opponent, those numbers are frightening. If you don’t get her out early, there’s really no hope.
Lanning is so good that her runs feel inevitable. She is so good, that we often forget to celebrate her genius. She is so good, that we only really notice her ‘failures’. She is so good, that when she achieves something extraordinary, we think of it as ordinary.
I mean, can you blame us? The woman doesn’t think anything’s a big enough deal! There’s always another peak to scale.
That attitude is reflected in the Australian skipper’s celebrations. They last all of 8 seconds – a raised bat, a raised helmet, a slight smile and a quick hug. Then, after a nod of acknowledgement, it’s straight back to work.
It’s like she’s almost embarrassed to celebrate…
Awww… I’m just doing my job, you can hear her say. My job is to finish the game for the team. The milestone doesn’t really matter. It comes along the way.
… But maybe she was embarrassed by this one: hundred no.17? After all, it did take forever to come!
The gap between international century no. 16 and 17 was 27 innings across 533 days. Not much for most, but an eternity for Lanning. The Australian captain scores an international century every 12.7 innings. She had to wait double that time to get this.
You can understand the embarrassment now, can’t you!
Nah! Just not good enough, Meg!
She’s a bully alright! An annoyingly humble one, too!
At only 29, you know she’s only going to get better. Those record books are hers to rewrite. And you know, with that steely resolve in her eyes, she will go after them one by one.
Years from now, when she looks back on her career, Meg Lanning will know she ruled the batting world, simply because she could.
She is cold. She is ruthless. She is cut from a different cloth.
Meg truly is the mightiest of them all!
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