A Player of the Match performance from rising Jawoyn star Ella Hayward has lead Australia to their second consecutive victory at the ICC Women's Under 19 T20 World Cup.
Dominating with both bat and ball, Hayward and her team-mates comprehensively accounted for their Sri Lankan opponents, winning by a mammoth 108 runs.
The increasingly-reliable Hayward top scored in Australia's batting innings, scoring 36 from 31 balls in Australia's competitive total of 5/159.
Following a fast start thanks to new opening pair Kate Pelle (27 from 19) and Sianna Ginger (30 from 31), Hayward combined with Ginger in an innings-high third wicket stand.
After the loss of Pelle and Claire Moore (6 from 9) the allrounder arrived at the crease in the eighth over with the score at 2-47 before going on to combine with Ginger in a 42 ball 66 run stand.
In their partnership the pair struck six boundaries, increasing the run rate and swinging momentum in favour of the Australian's heading into the innings' final overs.
However their partnership ended when Hayward was bowled by Sri Lankan off-spinner Rashmi Nethranjali partway through the 15th over, after Hayward missed a length ball outside off stump that clipped the bails.
The loss of Hayward was followed by Ginger the next over, leaving the late-innings acceleration to Tasmanian spin bowling allrounder Amy Smith (22 from 16) and left-handed Brisbane Heat allrounder Lucy Hamilton (22 from 11), who propelled Australia's score above 150 for the first time in the tournament.
In reply, Sri Lanka collapsed to be all out for 51 in 13 overs, with only opener Nethmi Senarathne (11 from 18) the only batter to reach double figures.
Sri Lanka's dismissals were shared amongst seven Australian bowlers, with Hayward (1-7) bowling Sri Lankan middle order batter Dewmi Vihanga (9 from 10) in the seventh over of the unsuccessful chase.
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The victory over Sri Lanka follows Australia's first victory of the tournament two days earlier against cricketing minnows the United States of America, where Australia bounced back from their shock loss against Bangladesh, cruising to a nine wicket win.
Hayward opened the bowling against the USA and was at her economical best, taking 1-4 from 2.3 overs.
Batting first, the USA could only manage a modest 64 after being bowled out halfway through the 16th over, with Kate Pelle 30* (26) and Claire Moore 22* (17), making light work of the USA attack chasing down the victory target inside nine overs.
However Australia's two strong performances were not not enough to gain first spot in Group A, leading to a likely Super Six stage encounter with an in-form India lead by Indian international Shafali Verma.
The Super Six stage begins on Saturday with cross-pool fixtures between teams who finished first and third in Groups B and C.
