Meg Lanning blasts masterful knock in WBBL as Melbourne Stars defeat Sydney Sixers

“What I found is if you do that, things happen for you.”

After also being the second leading run-scorer in the Hundred in England this year, Lanning has worked closely with Stars clubmate Glenn Maxwell this summer.

The deliberate evolution of her batting has refreshed the 33-year-old, who debuted for Victoria as a 16-year-old way back in 2008.

“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,” Lanning said.

“Whether it is moving around your crease or trying to hit to a different area of the ground.

“I know how to stand there and hit a cover drive, but I want to work on is trying to get the ball to different areas and try and manipulate the field a little bit.more.”

Thursday night was a clinic in manipulating the field at North Sydney Oval.

The right-hander pierced the Sixers’ offside field at will with a flurry of cuts, square drives and cover drives, hitting a record 26 boundaries.

They came at the rate of one every two balls after she passed 50, with her last 82 runs coming from 33 deliveries.

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Always brilliant through the offside, Lanning’s wrists were equally effective in lifting balls off her pads and over the legside boundary.

Lanning’s score and the Stars’ total of 4-219 were both the third highest in WBBL history, before the Sixers were all out for tournament’s second smallest ever score of 42.

“Once I got in the rhythm, 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,” Lanning said.

“(Those days) don’t happen often, so it was nice to be able to cash in … Everything you think is going to happen, happens.“
AAP

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