The Women’s World Cup has reached the halfway point and the home team is on the ropes. Cricket writer Adrian Seconi offers the following observations.
Super Sunday
The White Ferns have run out of lives. Tomorrow’s match against England at Eden Park is a virtual elimination game. The loser gets an invitation to a suffocating and gloom-filled room for the post-mortem discussion — the winner can box on. Neither side has been convincing. England strung together three consecutive losses before rebounding with a four-wicket win against India. The White Ferns have played one more game and are running out of runway. They were at their best with a 62-run win against India and dispatched Bangladesh by nine wickets in Dunedin. But narrow losses to the West Indies and South Africa and a heavy defeat to Australia has left their campaign teetering.
The semifinal race
You can get lost in a maze trying to figure out the various playoff scenarios. But let’s start by suggesting teams will need four wins to make the semifinals. Australia and South Africa had four straight wins as of Thursday. Australia seems unstoppable and you can probably ink in a spot for South Africa as well. Pakistan is winless after four games and you can probably discount Bangladesh as well. That leaves India, New Zealand, the West Indies and England competing for the remaining two semifinal berths.
Midterm awards
Australian opener Rachel Haynes is the leading scorer thanks to a big hundred against England. White Ferns skipper Sophie Devine scored a century and 90-odd in losing efforts. Aussie Ashleigh Gardner has a strike rate of 266.66 after clubbing the New Zealand attack. But South African opener Laura Wolvaardt has scored three half centuries in four knocks and gets the award for the most valuable batter so far. The bowling award goes to her team-mate, Ayabonga Khaka, with 10 wickets at 16.50
The good, bad and ugly
Some of the quality of the batting has been impressive. There are at least a couple of players in each team who possess real power and there is a lot more finesse to some of the batting than there has perhaps been in the past. India (317 for eight) and Australia (310 for three) have topped 300 in an innings, and England made 298 for eight in a losing chase. There have been seven centuries scored as well, and Gardner thumped 48 not out from 18 balls, much to the chagrin of the White Ferns bowling unit. That brings us neatly to the bowling, which has been mixed. Extras still make a larger contribution in some games than the coaches would be happy with. But the area which leaves the most room for improvement is the feilding. There have been some outstanding catches — see Deandra Dottin’s effort against England in Dunedin for a good example of athleticism at its finest — but overall the standard as been poor.
Form team
Rachel Haynes (AUS), Laura Wolvaardt (SA), Smriti Mandhana (IND), Natalie Sciver (ENG), Sophie Devine (NZ), Ellyse Perry (AUS) Hayley Matthews (WI), Amelie Kerr (NZ), Amy Jones (ENG), Shabnim Ismail (SA), Ayabonga Khaka (SA).
Competition standings
Australia P 4 W 4 L 0 Pts 8 NetRR 1.744
South Africa P 4 W 4 L 0 Pts 8 NetRR 0.226
West Indies P 5 W 3 L 2 Pts 6 NetRR -0.930
India P 4 W 2 L 2 Pts 4 NetRR 0.632
New Zealand P 4 W 2 L 3 Pts 4 NetRR -0.216
England P 4 W 1 L 3 Pts 2 NetRR 0.351
Bangladesh P 4 W 1 L 3 Pts 2 NetRR -0.342
Pakistan P 4 W 0 L 4 Pts 0 NetRR -0.996
