Women's World Cup

[Andy Mellon]

I know Ern has already started a thread in Women's Cricket on the England vs Australia game, (http://www.world-a-team.com/showthread.php?t=2624) but this tournament deserves full coverage. The tournament has kicked off today with 4 fixtures, the juiciest of which is the Eng vs Aus game.

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South Africa v Ireland   SUPERSPORT PARK 
New Zealand v West Indies  HARLEQUINS 
Sri Lanka v India   CENTURION LAUDIUM 
England v Australia   TECHNIKON A 


The favourites for the tournament are Australia, followed by New Zealand and then England and India. There is then a big gap to the rest of the pack in the West Indies, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Ireland (Ireland have played test cricket before in case you are interested)

There is one initial group stage where all teams play each other once. This means there are 4 games every other day until the 5th April when the semi finals get under way between team 1 vs team 4 and team 2 vs team 3. The final is on the 10th April

As a result, there are a lot of news articles on this tournament at the moment.

Clare Connor has picked India's Mithali Raj, South Africa's Johmari Logtenberg, Australian Karen Rolton, Kiwi Rachel Pullar and England's Jenny Gunn as the players to watch at this tournament.

England are currently 106-6 after 34 overs against Australia. Ireland currently have South Africa reeling on 110-5 after 31 overs

[Paoli]

Exactly right, AM, it does require the full coverage..Been following the England vs Australia game online at the moment, and our bowlers are their usual reliable selves...104-6 is the current score, with Cricinfo being down....Notable performances so far:

L Newton, 31 for England
Karen Rolton, 2-10 for Australia
J Hayes, 2-32 for Australia.

Rosalie Birch i was disappointed she didn't make a bigger score, as she seems quite good looking. Babe of the tournament perhaps!!!

[Zainub]

The favourites for the tournament are Australia

Is there any competetion where they don't start as favorites?

[Andy Mellon]

Updates. Cricinfo are being fairly lax on providing the data. Cricinfo are only doing reports and scorecards for the England and Ireland matches. One of the other fixtures, they didn't even have a score for a while.

If you are interested, Sri Lanka all out for 116. India 4-0
West Indies 178-8 off 50 overs, New Zealand 18-2 in reply (could the Windies spring a surprise?!)
South Africa 204-7 off 48 overs
England 169-7 off 50 overs.

All 4 matches have been hit by rain! Is this a bad time of year to be playing cricket in South Africa?

Very sad for the Windies who had a chance of springing a surprise akin to Namibia beating Australia in the men's game. Not so bad for England and Sri Lanka who both looked on the ropes.

[Andy Mellon]

Sorry in advance for the bad pun, but just saw this

Originally Posted by Cricinfo

The Australian motivation is that they don't hold the World Cup. They're certainly going about reclaiming it in the best possible fashion: they beat India recently 4-3 and last week won all three matches against New Zealand to claim the Rose Bowl.

Good riddance! Maybe Hampshire can build a decent ground now - or even return to playing at the old ones!!

Also, I've just read that tickets for the group games are FREE and tickets for the final are Rand20.... £1.80!!!! What a bargain... Any South Africans here, get yourself down to the grounds and support the ladies!

[Paoli]

South Africa, 169 (Brits 72, Thomas 4-42) defeated West Indies, 168 (Brits 4-37, Nero 41) by 1 run. Scorecard

South Africa edged a thriller at the Laudium Oval, beating West Indies by one run. West Indies made a decent chase of their target of 170, but pulled up one run short after the allrounder Cri-Zelda Brits took 4 for 37. Philippa Thomas was West Indies' hero with the ball – taking 4 for 42 from ten overs – and nearly proved so with the bat, racing along at a run a ball as her team closed in on victory with just one wicket left. But with three balls to go, and just two runs required, Thomas mi**** a slog sweep, leaving Brits to celebrate a South African victory.

It could have been such a different story - after choosing to bat, South Africa were soon reeling at 16 for 4, with their shining star Johmari Logtenberg run out second ball without scoring – her second successive failure. But Brits and Shandre Fritz stabilized the innings, adding 42 for the fifth wicket until Felicia Cummings blasted out Fritz with a firebomb of a delivery.

The opener Brits stood firm amid a blitz from West Indies bowlers, striking a solid 72 to solidify South Africa's innings and lift them to 170. Juliana Nero top-scored with 41 for the unfancied West Indies team, but South Africa proved they had the stronger nerves as they held on for the points.


England 284 for 4 (SC Taylor 136, Edwards 63, Connor 54, Udawatte 3-38) defeated Sri Lanka 70 (Gunn 3-28, Pearson 3-23) by 214 runs. Scorecard

England made quick work of bowling out Sri Lanka for 70 at Harlequins to win their second World Cup match by 214 runs. Jenny Gunn and Lucy Pearson grabbed three wickets each to set Sri Lanka under the cosh from the outset, with the required run rate nearly six an over. They got off to a brisk start, thanks to a host of 39 extras (38 of them wides, 12 scattered by Gunn), but the clattering of wickets proved too much and no batsman made double figures. England wrapped up the match with 24 overs to spare.

Claire Taylor blasted a rapid 136 to lift England into a commanding position. Clare Connor may have questioned her decision to bat when Praba Udawatte trapped Laura Newton lbw for 3 (10 for 1). But this proved to be little more than an early scare when the in-form Taylor shared two towering stands - 128 with Charlotte Edwards and 119 with Connor – to boost England to 284 for 4.

Edwards' 63 represented a return to form at the right time and she became England's leading one-day run-scorer at the same time, while Connor's quickfire 54 from just 47 balls was just what England needed. Edwards has 2178 runs in 65 matches, surpassing her coach Janette Brittin's record of 2,121 from 63 matches set in 1993.

Udawatte dismissed Taylor and Connor late on to bring her haul to 3 for 38 from her ten overs, but she was the only one of eight bowlers to escape a mauling from England's batsmen. Priyanga de Alwis may have removed Edwards, but her solitary wicket came at a price: her six overs went for 65 runs as England made hay, led by the indomitable Taylor. Her 136 came from 128 balls, including 11 fours and a six. England now face Ireland, while Sri Lanka face another stern test: they take on the holders New Zealand.


Australia 174 for 7 (Blackwell 53) defeated New Zealand 142 (Rolls 60, Drumm 42, Rolton 3-22) by 32 runs. Scorecard

Australia defeated New Zealand by 32 runs at the LD de Villiers Oval. This was a topsy-turvy tussle between the favourites and the holders - with Australia emerging victors. But New Zealand's bowlers didn't make it easy for them at first, reducing Australia to a perilous 50 for 5, before Alex Blackwell and Cathryn Fitzpatrick rescued the top-rated team with a battling rearguard stand of 85. With just 174 runs to defend, Australia were far from sitting comfortably, but they soon had New Zealand in trouble at 23 for 3. Yet the holders came back into the match, as Rebecca Rolls and Haidee Tiffin put on 77 for the fourth wicket. But then a minor collapse prompted by Karen Rolton (3 for 22) and Julie Hayes (1 for 30) ultimately tipped the balance in Australia's favour.

India 68 for 1 defeated Ireland 65 (Sharma 3-12) by nine wickets. Scorecard

Mithali Raj and Anju Jain steered India to an easy nine-wicket victory against Ireland at the Tshwane University of Technology. Clare Shillington chose to bat but her side were soon in trouble and folded to 65 all out. Miriam Grearley offered the only resistance, a solid 38, but all around her were losing their heads, and their wickets. India kept theirs, though, losing only one wicket as they coasted home within 18 overs.

In other Womens World Cup News: Emily Drumm has been ruled out of the rest of the World Cup with a hamstring injury. Drumm, New Zealand's most capped player, sustained the damage during New Zealand's defeat to Australia on Thursday and her absence is a massive blow to the World Cup holders.

Aimee Mason will come into the team as a replacement batsman after doctors advised Drumm to withdraw for the entire tournament. Mason will arrive in South Africa on Sunday, too late for New Zealand's third match against Sri Lanka, which takes place on Saturday. However, Mason is expected to be available for the fourth round tie on Monday, when New Zealand take on Ireland, a team they defeated 3-0 in 2004.

New Zealand have much work to do in the remaining group matches to guarantee themselves a semi-final place. They are a lowly sixth in the table, after rain washed out the first round, and sinking to Australia in the second.

[Pete]

SkySports to show the 2 semi finals and the final.

[Andy Mellon]

England women have been defeated by Australia women by 5 wickets.

The batting really let England down with the top 3 failing and the lower middle order also failing. England were all out for 158 off 49.4 overs. They only really got that thanks to Clare Taylor (the bowling one) hitting 29 from #9. All Australia's bowlers contributed. The best performance was probably from Fitzpatrick taking 3 for 27.

Australia then scored the 159 required from 47 overs. The main contribution coming from Belinda Clark with 62. They almost let themselves down with 3 run outs. Best bowling from Clare Connor with 10 - 3 - 24 - 1

[Zainub]

Hopefully, not a sign of things to come elsewhere in Aus-Eng clashes. An over doze of 600 runs pluss matches every other season or so have meant I totally disgust batting collapses in one-dayers. Hopefully someone else will challenge Australia in the final.

[Nikhil]

Good win for Indian women. Hopefully they can compete well against the Aussies. I don't have any idea about how good/bad are these ladies, so I think I can not comment more.