The T20 extravaganza saw many firsts in the women’s game: the boundaries pushed back and no Australia, England in the knockouts; NZ’s memorable triumph saw the scales even out
A new champion. A redemption story for the ages. Ageing warhorses finally getting their day in the sun. The end of a 24-year-long wait. New Zealand’s maiden T20 World Cup triumph capped off a rather special edition of the tournament that’s finally seeing the scales even out in the women’s game.
The ninth edition of the tournament, hosted in the UAE saw the first-ever Women’s World Cup final without Australia or England.
A transitioning Australian team, without injured leader Alyssa Healy, was beaten quite comprehensively in the first semifinal by South Africa. West Indies – with its batting ballistics helped generously by England’s slipperiness in the field — showed Heather Knight and Co. the door. India, the third prong in cricket’s power circle at the moment, also drifted out of contention in the group stage.
After much talk about the low and slow wickets were taking the zing out of how World Cup cricket should be and a larger impatience in how the players were taking time to adjust to the challenging heat and humidity of the Middle East, the final week delivered.
While Group-A (Australia, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan) was dubbed the group of the death, the merciless slashing happened in Group-B (England, South Africa, Scotland, Bangladesh, West Indies) with England. There’s a cruel irony in India having had a chance to qualify despite losing two games, but England was straight out for having one bad game (a colossally bad one at that).
With over 80 dropped catches during the course of the tournament, fielding ended up being the difference between teams especially in crunch situations. It cost England a knockout spot. It cost India against New Zealand. The ‘Ring of Fire’ in Dubai was particularly notorious with players across the board admitting that the ball was lost on them for a few minutes against the blinding light.
Boundaries in Sharjah and Dubai were longer than ones drawn in for women’s games in say, Mumbai or even Chennai. The 60-73m peripheries in some areas made six-hitting difficult. Slow outfields made scoring along the ground challenging. While boundaries were slow to become frequent, many teams adapted their shots to clear the ropes and maximise on scoring opportunities.
A new champion is a great sign for a World Cup that’s looking to expand. The reducing gap between the top three means more competitive games and events. Scotland broke through to the World Cup scene this time, but for these watershed moments to make sense, it needs to be backed up with bilateral support and more game time against higher-quality opponents.