“When I’m in the contest, I don’t want to let the team down,” Beth Mooney

Australia’s legacy in women’s cricket is unassailable, winning a record 13 World Cup titles—the most by any team in the sport’s history. Across the years, Australia has been the fortress that has produced some of the finest cricketers who’ve ever played the game, such as legends Ellyse Perry and Meg Lanning.

But amidst these household names is one player who has been a key part of the team but has not been in much spotlight. That player is Beth Mooney. Whether anchoring chases under pressure or delivering clutch performances in all-important games, Mooney has time and again proven to be a steering force for Australia, making her one of the most indispensable assets of the team.

On being such an accomplished achiever, Mooney said, “I think winning is always nice in a team sport, and being able to contribute, but I’m quite competitive and gutsy as well. It doesn’t always look pretty when I’m out there, but when I’m in the contest, I don’t want to let the team down.”

Mooney bagged the Player of the Match award in the 2023 T20 World Cup final, with the cricketer of the tournament award in the 2020 edition. An astonishing 110 average at the 2022 ODI World Cup while a cherry on the top with back-to-back Player of the Match awards in the 2018-19- and 2019-20-Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) finals, you cannot count the accolades bagged by the ever-reliable Mooney.

Since the year 2020, Mooney has been one of the most destructive batters in the shortest format, with 2,230 runs across 65 innings—second only to India’s southpaw Smriti Mandhana, who has played 13 fewer innings. She holds the highest average (46.45) among the top 50 run-scorers during this stipulated time frame and has scored 22 half-centuries.

T20 cricket is not just about connecting the ball from the meat of the bat to send it over the stands, but about perceiving the nuances of batting and pacing the innings through a steadied innings with the application of cautioned aggression at the right moment of time. Notably, in Australia’s premier T20 competition, the WBBL, Mooney commands the driver’s seat as the tournament’s all-time leading run-scorer, smashing 5051 runs in 141 innings.

Mooney, who has an art of creaming the most of her cricketing abilities, said, “In T20, you are looking to take the game on as much as possible. And you know your limits within yourself. Who your best match-up is against what team. I just feel like if you can get yourself going against a certain bowler, then that opens the game right up for you against the other bowlers.” She explained that since getting out in every game is inevitable, her focus is on ensuring that her dismissals align with her preferred style of play, and as long as that happens, she is satisfied.

Gujarat Giants, the team for which Mooney plays in the Women’s Premier League, hasn’t yet arrived with success in the league. The wicket-keeper batter was ruled out of the inaugural edition due to injury but couldn’t turn the tables for the franchise in the successive season. The team finished at the last spot in the points table in both the seasons and would expect a perfect tale of redemption in season three under the leadership of a new skipper- Ashleigh Gardner.

“It’s not really a secret that we haven’t won too many games at Gujarat,” Mooney said. “That’s not through any fault of our own in terms of effort or attitude. I think the attitude of the group has been excellent. The coaching staff are doing the best they can to provide us with lots of opportunities to train and learn about the game. Winning and losing become a bit of a habit, and unfortunately for us, we have probably just lost some pretty close games. I think if we had won, we probably would have got on a nice roll and learnt how to win those games.”

The Women’s Premier League has had a positive effect in India, with crowds turning up in tremendous numbers to cheer for women’s cricket. Mooney believes that India attracts strong crowds for women’s cricket, highlighting the passionate RCB fans at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, who create an electrifying atmosphere. She finds it encouraging to witness the shifting perspective on the women’s game, with more people eager to watch and willing to go to great lengths to secure a ticket.

In the national setup, with Alyssa Healy suffering a string of injuries, Mooney has taken up the job of wicketkeeping, which she has been doing since her nascent stages of career. She said, “It’s probably just worked out that in the Australian team, obviously Alyssa’s been the main wicketkeeper there and I had to find a way into the team somewhere else. It’s a skill set I’m pretty comfortable with and have done it for a long period of time, but I think I’m equally confident in the field.”

Australian cricket has never been served by the leadership services of Beth Mooney. She believes in leading by example, preferring a quiet leadership style that allows her to influence the group subtly while focusing on her role. She has always been willing to step up when needed, especially when the right people have entrusted her with responsibilities that positively impact the team.

(Quotes sourced from ESPN)

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