2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup – A Summary
“We lost the final, yes, and it still hurts, but these are things you remember – and that 171 is one of them.”, said Jhulan Goswami as she reminisced the 2017 women’s cricket world cup.
Showing up for the 11th time overall, the silver cup was back, this time in England for the 3rd time after its previous appearances in 1973 and 1993.
This edition was played between the same 8 teams as in 2015 who contested in 31 matches between 24th June and 23rd July spread across 5 venues, with the final scheduled to be played at the prestigious home of cricket, Lord’s. England, Australia, South Africa, and India were the 4 squads that made it to the semi-finals in which England subdued the Proteas by 2 wickets while India toppled over Australia by a healthy margin of 36 runs. This set the stage for an exciting final between England and India both of whom were remarkable not only in this tournament but have been for a while.
Be it India’s fearless batting or England’s gruesome bowling, both teams were equal in all departments so the final was destined to be a cracker and it did not disappoint! England won the toss and put India to bowl first who put up a decent performance by restricting England to 228/7. The key performers were Sarah Taylor who scored 45 (62) and Jhulan Goswami who uprooted 3 batters. The 2nd innings portrayed a more comprehensive batting display as Punam Raut scored 86 (115) and the experienced Harmanpreet Kaur contributed 51 (80). However, despite these contributions, England bowlers had the upper hand and were able to bowl out India, courtesy of Anya Shrubsole who picked up 6 and became the champion of the day. This was unquestionably a distressing experience for India as they were just 9 runs from their target however, we all acknowledge that they won a lot more that day.
This match received notable attention from the media which made it prevalent that women’s cricket is now being taken seriously in India. Likewise, this also happened due to another excellent Indian performance. During their semi-final against Australia, India produced another significant performance. This took place on the 20th of July when Harmanpreet Kaur decided to overpower her injuries and script history. It was during the first innings in which she contributed an excellent 171* (115) to her team’s total of 281/4 and recorded the highest score by a woman during the knock-out stage of the world cup and the highest score by an Indian woman during the world cup, both while the overs were reduced to 42 due to rain. What if they hadn’t reduced?
Student, Athlete, and Cricket Enthusiast.