Meg Lanning may not need to torment bowlers on the international stage anymore, but an endless desire to “dominate” has evolved her game, which is bad news for WBBL bowlers but fantastic for fans and statisticians who saw her blast one of the great innings of all time on Thursday night.
On any other night, the focus would be on the Sixers being rolled for 42 – the second-lowest score in WBBL history.
But that’s an afterthought given what Lanning did with the bat in the first innings where she smashed 135 off just 74 deliveries, with only Grace Harris (136 not out) and Lizelle Lee (150 not out) scoring more in a WBBL innings.
It was Lanning’s highest T20 score in any competition and powered her to the top of the WBBL standings this season, with the former Aussie skipper averaging an absurd 96 from her four innings.
It’s a scary prospect for bowlers in T20 leagues around the world because while she retired from international cricket two years ago when she was 31, Lanning isn’t slowing down and is keen to keep evolving her game.
“I think you’ve got to. I feel like if you just keep standing there waiting for things to happen, then you’re going to get stuck, that is the T20 game these days,” she said after she more than tripled Sydney’s score.
“It’s just working out subtle changes you can throw at the bowlers to give them something different. Whether it is moving around your crease or trying to hit to a different area of the ground.
“I have actually really enjoyed that challenge, it keeps me interested at training and gives me a task to try new shots and different things.
“I know how to stand there and hit a cover drive, but what I want to work on is trying to get the ball to different areas and try and manipulate the field a little bit more.
“That’s pretty much what I have been trying to do at training, and it keeps me interested and keeping wanting to go back and keep learning.”
Lanning has been working with superstar all-rounder Glenn Maxwell at the Stars on ways to improve her batting, with the opener revealing the one thing that’s prompted her desire to get better.
“I want to dominate,” she declared.
“And I felt like if I wanted to do that then I had to evolve and add a few things so I could get it back on my terms.
“There are a few subtle changes, but a lot of it is around mindset as well. I just feel like I am pretty free to be able to go out there and take the game on with the depth we’ve got within the squad as well.
“It gives me a lot of confidence that if it doesn’t come off, it’ll be someone else’s day.”
Lanning was so in the zone at North Sydney Oval that she had no idea of the records she was closing in on, with the veteran mixing power with precision as she whacked 22 boundaries and four towering sixes.
A compilation video of her stupendous strokes went for nearly seven minutes as she hit balls to all parts of the ground, with Lanning continuing her terrific form from the Hundred competition in England where she averaged nearly 36.
“It was interesting because the first part of my innings I felt like I got stuck a little bit. I felt like I did hit some good shots to the field, on another day they hit a gap and you get off to a flyer,” she said.
“Once I got into a bit of rhythm, after that 10-over mark, I was just hunting boundaries and could read where they were going to bowl it and I was able to execute the shot I wanted to. They don’t happen that often, so it was nice to be able to cash in.
“Everything you think is going to happen, happens, but it doesn’t happen very often. So it’s nice to be able to cash in and get us off to a nice start and get the total up there to get the win.”
