Meg Lanning

Meghann Moira "Meg" Lanning (born 25 March 1992) is an Australian cricketer. An opening batsman, she is captain and a current member of the Australian women's cricket team and the Victorian Spirit. She is the older sister of Anna Lanning, born exactly 2 years before her.

She 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 man-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 29th 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.

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.

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. As of August 2015, this is the highest individual innings score in a women's international.

• ICC Women's T20I Cricketer of the Year – 2014
• Belinda Clark Award – 2014
• ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year – 2015
• Belinda Clark Award – 2015
• Wisden Leading Woman Cricketer in the World – 2015
• Belinda Clark Award – 2017