Easter Monday World Cup preview

A fine sunny Easter Monday is forecast around Tshwane for Match Day Four of the 2005 Women’s Cricket World Cup. Live scores can be found at a number of outlets including the United Cricket Board of South Africa, CricInfo, and Ananova. Highlight is the top-of-the-table clash at Laudium Oval between England and India. All four favoured teams won their matches on Saturday, but in three cases a flaw in the armour was evident. England couldn’t bowl out Ireland; Australia were bowled out by the West Indies; and India lost six wickets in overcoming South Africa’s score of 80.

England v India at Laudium

England and India have met six times in World Cup play, the first of which saw India bowled out for 63 before England won by nine wickets at Eden Gardens on New Year’s Day 1978. Three meetings in the 1982 World Cup in New Zealand saw England winning by four wickets, India by 47 runs, and finally a ten-wicket rout by England at Trafalgar Park, Nelson. Their 1993 meeting was won by England by three runs with a ball to spare; in 2000 it was India who won in the final over by eight runs.

Today’s clash is a meeting of the team with the 2005 World Cup’s leading run-scorers to date (Claire Taylor 160, Clare Connor 136, Charlotte Edwards 110), and the team with the World Cup’s three leading wicket-takers (Amita Sharma 7, Deepu Marathe and Neetu David equal with Karen Rolton (Aus) and Philippa Thomas (WI) on 6). Form suggests England today, despite the absence through illness of Arran Brindle, but a India will want a victory to demonstrate that it is a serious contender for the title.

Australia v South Africa at LC de Villiers Oval

Australia and South Africa have met 5 times in one day internationals with Australia winning all 5.

In World Cup competition and the last time these two sides met, Australia and South Africa played twice at the last World Cup in 2000. The second match was the semi-final where Australia won by 9 wickets with 112 balls to spare, 1/181 (31.2) def 8/180 (50).

Belinda Clark (279 runs) and Cathryn Fitzpatrick (11 wickets) are Australia’s leading batter and bowler (Fitzpatrick jointly with Charmaine Mason) respectively against South Africa.

This match sees two of the tournament’s leading all-rounders, Karen Rolton and Cri-Zelda Brits, going head to head, but the only serious question about this game is whether South Africa can take the bonus point off Australia.

Ireland v New Zealand at Harlequins

Ireland and New Zealand have met six times in the World Cup, the first three of those in Australia in 1988. New Zealand won by 154 runs in Perth, by 111 runs at Albert Park, Melbourne, and by 70 runs in the third-place playoff of the five-team tournament at Punt Road, Richmond. In subsequent World Cups, NZ’s margins of victory were seven wickets (Shenley, 1993), 139 runs (Mumbai, 1997), and eight wickets (Bert Sutcliffe Oval, 2000). Victory number seven beckons today.

Sri Lanka v West Indies at Benoni

One World Cup meeting between these two teams saw Sri Lanka win by six wickets in Delhi in 1997. More recently, they met for six ODIs in the West Indies in 2003, Sri Lanka clean-sweeping the series. The West Indies, however, have been impressive in this World Cup in losses to South Africa and Australia, and should start favourites today.

(Bronwyn Calver contributed to this report.)

(Note: This article was originally written for the Cricketwoman website in 2005. It may contain links to Cricketarchive which have long since ceased to exist. Cricketwoman was a partner website of Cricketarchive at the time of the 2005 Womens World Cup. – RE, 2017-07-21)

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