Meg Lanning


Meghann Moira Lanning is an Australian cricketer who currently captains the national women's team. She has been a member of five successful world championship campaigns, winning one Women's Cricket World Cup and four ICC Women's World Twenty20s. She holds the record for the most Women's One Day International centuries and is the first Australian to score 2,000 Twenty20 International runs. Lanning is also the captain of Victoria in the Women's National Cricket League and the Perth Scorchers in the Women's Big Bash League.

Domestic cricket

Lanning made her debut for the Victorian Spirit on 6 December 2008 against the South Australian Scorpions, scoring 3 runs as Victoria won by 45 runs. She played 3 more games that season as Victoria went on to lose against New South Wales in the Grand Final. In the 2009/10 season, she played in 6 of the T20 games for Victoria, her highlight being 52 not out against Tasmania. She then had a breakthrough 2010/11 season which culminated in her producing a woman-of-the-match performance of 74 runs off 62 balls in the WT20 Grand Final against New South Wales to lead Victoria to the title.
She hit her first century for Victoria on 29 October 2011, making 127 off 123 balls against the Queensland Fire. She had an impressive 2011/12 domestic season, with a batting average of 48 in WNCL matches and 37.36 in WT20 matches. Thanks to this impressive form, Lanning collected both the Sharon Tredrea Trophy and the Cathryn Fitzpatrick Award as the WNCL and Women's T20 Player of the Year for the Victorian Spirit, whilst also being named the Women's National Cricket League T20 Player of the Year.
On 10 November 2012, Lanning broke the record for the highest individual score in the Women's National Cricket League, smashing 175 from 142 balls against the ACT Meteors, easily surpassing the previous record set by Karen Rolton of 173. She then surpassed her own record by scoring 190 runs in mere 153 balls against Tasmania Women on 29 October 2016. Eight days after posting this record, she then smashed 241 not out off 136 balls for Box Hill Cricket Club in the Victorian Women's Cricket Association, the highest individual score in Women's Premier First's Cricket.
In November 2018, she was named as captain of the Perth Scorchers' squad for the 2018–19 Women's Big Bash League season.

International cricket

Lanning made her T20 International debut on 30 December 2010 against New Zealand in the Rose Bowl tournament, scoring 10 runs as Australia beat New Zealand by 4 wickets. She then made her One-Day International debut on 5 January 2011 against England at the WACA Ground, and opened the batting, making 20 runs before being caught.
Two days later, in just her 2nd international game, she scored her maiden ODI century against England, making 103 not out off 148 balls, including 8 fours and 1 six. In doing so, at 18 years and 288 days she became the country's youngest ever centurion – male or female, comfortably beating Ricky Ponting's previous record of 21 years and 21 days.
She has since been a regular in the Australian women's cricket team, scoring another century against India on 14 March 2012 at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai making 128 off 104 balls as Australia won by 221 runs. During the 2012 ICC Women's World Twenty20, she was named in the Team of the Tournament after finishing the third highest run scorer and in the process becoming the first woman to hit five consecutive innings of over 30 in T20 Internationals during the series.
In the final of the 2012 Women's World T20, she hit 25 off 24, setting up the Australian innings well as Australia successfully defeated England by 4 runs.
In June 2015, she was named as one of Australia's touring party for the 2015 Women's Ashes in England.
In July, during the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup, she scored a match-winning game of 152 from only 135 balls with 19 fours and a six. She became the fastest to score 11 ODI centuries and has taken only 59 innings to complete the task.

Record-breaking Twenty20 innings

On 27 March 2014 in a match against Ireland in the 2014 ICC Women's World Twenty20, Lanning scored 126 runs from 65 balls. This was the highest individual innings score in a women's international.

Rose Bowl series 2017

On 5 March 2017, against New Zealand she scored her 10th hundred in WODI, breaking the record of most centuries in WODI. She also went onto become the first female cricketer to score 10 centuries on Women's ODI history

2017–18 season and beyond

In August it was announced that Lanning would not be able to play in the Women's Ashes due to surgery on her right shoulder. The injury was expected to sideline her from cricket for six to eight months. In December 2017, she was named as one of the players in the ICC Women's ODI Team of the Year. In April 2018, she was one of the fourteen players to be awarded a national contract for the 2018–19 season by Cricket Australia.
In October 2018, she was named as the captain of Australia's squad for the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies. Ahead of the tournament, she was named as the star of the team. In April 2019, Cricket Australia awarded her with a contract ahead of the 2019–20 season.
In June 2019, Cricket Australia named her as the captain of Australia's team for their tour to England to contest the Women's Ashes. On 26 July 2019, in the first Women's Twenty20 International match of the Women's Ashes, Lanning scored 133 not out, which was the highest individual total in WT20Is.
In September, during Australia's series against the West Indies, Lanning became the fastest player, male or female, to score thirteen centuries in ODI cricket, doing so in her 76th innings. In January 2020, she was named as the captain of Australia's squad for the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia. In Australia's second match of the tournament, against Sri Lanka, Lanning played in her 100th WT20I match.

International centuries

One Day Internationals

Twenty20 Internationals

Records and achievements

Team

Lanning's nicknames are "Megastar" and Serious Sally, the latter being an allusion to her level-headedness.