Record year looms for Lanning

There are good years, there are great years and then there are the kinds of the years Meg Lanning is currently enjoying.

One of the best players in the women’s game throughout her three-and-a-half-year career, Lanning has turned it up a notch in 2014.

In one Test, three one-day internationals and nine T20 internationals Lanning has averaged better than 35 with the bat, has led the Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars to their third successive ICC World Twenty20 crown and has assumed the role of full-time captain with the poise and confidence usually attributed to someone with more than just 22 years to their name.

Her numbers become even more impressive when limited solely to the T20 format, Lanning notching 400 runs at an average of 50 since Australia’s Ashes defeat in Hobart on January 29 – a match in which she scored an unbeaten 78 off 54 balls.

Lanning is currently placed third on the all-time women’s T20 run scorers list for a calendar year, 216 runs behind England’s Sarah Taylor in 2012.

With eight T20 matches against Pakistan and the West Indies still to play before December 31, Lanning may well finish 2014 atop that list – and will possibly, considering her spectacular average, have a significant gap between herself and her competition.

The year started in indifferent fashion for Lanning, the Southern Stars losing their lone Test against England in Perh to find themselves behind the eight ball in their quest to reclaim the Women’s Ashes.

Despite taking the honours in four of their next six limited-overs matches, the superior weighting of the Test meant England claimed their second successive series win over the Aussies.

Struggling for form in the early going, Lanning’s 143 runs at 76.50 to round out the series was an ominous warning to opposition bowlers ahead of the WT20 in Bangladesh.

With Jodie Fields set to miss through injury, Lanning took over the national captaincy ahead of T20 cricket’s marquee event, the Victorian topping the tournament run scoring with an average of 42.83, a strike rate of 158.64 and a record international women’s T20 knock of 126 from 65 deliveries against Ireland in the group stage.

With the individual records neatly tucked away, Lanning went on to lead the Southern Stars to their third successive WT20 crown – completing their undefeated campaign in Bangladesh with a six-wicket win over Ashes combatants England in Dhaka.

Her stellar form at home and abroad saw Lanning chosen for a Rest of the World XI to commemorate the bicentennial of the Lord’s Cricket Ground. Lanning scored 59 runs off 55 balls in the one-day match to help set up a 41-run victory over the Marylebone Cricket Club women’s side.

Lanning’s successful tenure as Southern Stars captain was made permanent in June of this year following the retirement of Fields, continuing what has been an unbelievable year for the 22-year-old.

In yet another accolade to add to an already bulging resume, the reigning Belinda Clark Medallist has also been nominated in the sport category of Cosmo Magazine’s Fun Fearless Female Competition. You can vote for Meg here.

The Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars kick off their campaign against Pakistan at Redlands Cricket Inc. on August 21 and you can watch every ball LIVE and EXCLUSIVE on cricket.com.au.