Bray stars again as Aussie girls march on at World Cup

Australian teenage star Caoimhe Bray has continued her blistering start at the Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup by delivering another player-of-the-match tour de force in their 83-run victory over Nepal in Malaysia.

The 15-year-old, who made a big impact when she became the youngest player ever in the WBBL in October turning out for the Sydney Sixers, took her second individual award in three matches with a fine knock of 45 off just 34 balls in Wednesday’s group D match in Bangi.

The win completed the Australian teenagers’ clean sweep through all their group matches, having also beaten Scotland and Bangladesh, to ensure they can launch their campaign in the Super Six stage of the tournament on Saturday in prime position.

Bray’s knock also helped Australia come through a very awkward early spell on Wednesday when, coming in at No.4, she found herself having to bail out the side after they had opted to bat first only to stutter to 3-14 within the first three overs.

The wickets to tumble included captain Lucy Hamilton, who fell for a four-ball duck, but Bray then dominated an excellent fourth-wicket recovery partnership of 72 off 10 overs with Eleanor Larosa (31 off 39 balls).

Bray’s 45 included three sixes and three fours, while excellent late hitting from Hasrat Gill (30no off 21) and Chloe Ainsworth (16no off nine) took Australia to 6-139 off their 20 overs.

In reply, Nepal had to rely on their talented skipper Puja Mahato, who’d initiated the early Australia collapse with three wickets and ended with 3-31, to shine with the bat too.

Yet though the only one of their players to get into double figures, she was pinned down by the Australians’ probing attack, led by Gill, who finally dismissed her for 18 off 42 balls.

Gill, a challenger to Bray (0-8 off three overs) for player of the match honours, had the superb figures of 2-9 off her four overs as the Nepalese could only crawl to 8-56 Juliette Morton (2-10 off four) and Lily Bassingthwaighte (2-4 off three) also grabbed a couple of wickets apiece.