McGrath hails Sutherland after all-rounder helps Australia to remarkable victory
Media release
Tahlia McGrath hailed the impact of Annabel Sutherland after the all-rounder helped Australia pull off a remarkable six-wicket victory over England in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025.
The 24-year-old was magnificent with both bat and ball against their great rivals, firstly claiming three for 60 to restrict Nat Sciver-Brunt’s side to 244 for nine before crashing an unbeaten 98 as part of an unbroken 180-run stand with Ash Gardner (104*) to get her country over the line.
The reigning champions had found themselves in trouble during their chase after slipping to 68 for four.
But Sutherland and Gardner turned the tide of the match with a brilliant display of batting en route to what turned out to be a comfortable win, as Australia moved back to the top of the group stage table.
“She's such a gun,” said McGrath, who was standing in as captain for the injured Alyssa Healy. “It’s scary how young she still is. She’s one of our hardest trainers. Her planning is meticulous, and whenever we’re in trouble, you sort of just turn to Bells, she’s that good.”
Sutherland entered the fray with Australia 24 for three after Ellyse Perry had fallen to Linsey Smith following the earlier departures of Phoebe Litchfield and Georgia Voll.
At that stage, England’s bowlers, led by Smith and Lauren Bell were turning the screw on their opponents and making run scoring difficult.
But Sutherland was confident that, if she could survive during the early part of her innings, she’d be able to bat deep on a pitch that was getting progressively better.
“I know when I get in, I cash in,” said Sutherland, who was named Player of the Match. “I just try to trust my game. I’ve been tinkering with a few things mentally and I just try to give myself the best chance early on in my innings.
“I wanted to have some time in the middle. I feel like once I got in, it was actually a really nice wicket to bat on. There was a fast outfield and you get value for runs. I tried to get myself in and stay busy with my partner up the other end.”
Gardner hit the winning runs with a lofted drive to the rope having gone to her second century of this year’s World Cup the over before following her 115 against New Zealand.
The dominant triumph, which was wrapped up with more than nine overs remaining, highlighted the importance of Sutherland and Gardner’s stand and the centurion was delighted to be part of the match-winning partnership.
She said: “[I’m feeling] lots of happiness. When you bat in the middle order, you can either come in when you’re four for a lot or four for not many. We always speak about building big partnerships, and I guess when I got out there with Bells, she had a pretty good read of the wicket.
“It was about making sure that I was really clinical and trying to get off strike for starters. Then, If I got a ball in my area, making sure that I was capitalising on that as well. It showed [today] the longer you’re out there, the easier it got.”
The result marks England’s first defeat of the tournament but captain Sciver-Brunt remains confident that if her charges were to meet Australia again in the knockout stages, they’d be ready for the challenge.
She said: “Absolutely [we’re still positive of what lies ahead]. We’ll review this game very carefully and make sure we take the positives and the learnings as well. Coming up against a quality side, you have to be really good for the whole game, and we weren’t as good as Australia today.
“But definitely [I think we can beat Australia]. We weren’t at our best today, but I don’t think we’ve played our best game yet. We’ll be ready for them if we meet them again.”
ENDS