It was a day for breaking records and with all eight teams in action, the second round of matches left us with plenty more to look forward to.
To sum up briefly what happened, there were wins for Australia, England, New Zealand and the West Indies. But that doesn’t really begin to tell the story.
Australia had to fight hard but eventually secured their place in the Super 6s along with New Zealand while England and the West Indies winning means we have all four teams in their group level on points.
Let’s start with England, who bounced back from their one-wicket shock defeat to Sri Lanka by beating India by 32 runs, largely thanks to Charlotte Edwards (109) and Katherine Brunt (4-29). Edwards’s seventh ODI century took her past Belinda Clark and Karen Rolton onto the top of the of all-time run-scorers in women’s ODI cricket. Among English players, only Claire Taylor (8) has scored more centuries.
Contributions from the rest of England’s team including the returning Sarah Taylor, Lydia Greenway and Arran Brindle were too much for India, but the game was still in the balance despite them losing three early wickets. Harmanpreet Kaur struck 107 not out to keep India in the hunt, but eventually their recovery had taken too long and they had been left with too much to do.
Suzie Bates was in the runs again as New Zealand thrashed Pakistan and as she passed 1,500 ODI runs, her side made it through, thanks also to Australia holding their nerve against South Africa.
South Africa’s 188 might not have looked a competitive score but when Australia were reduced to 155 for seven, the game was in the balance. Step forward Ellyse Perry and Erin Osborne and the experienced pair made it two wins out of two for Australia. The clash between them and New Zealand in two days time has two crucial points (as they are carried forward) riding on it. Pakistan meet South Africa in a winner-takes-it-all clash. The prize: progression to the Super 6s and three more games.
I would argue that New Zealand have produced the most impressive cricket so far, with both of their wins being emphatic and a number of their players showing strong form. Australia’s batting, strangely, has not yet really fired but they can count on their lower order – which other teams perhaps can’t.
Stafanie Taylor smashed 171 in 137 balls against Sri Lanka, who never threatened to repeat their success against England, going down by 209 runs. Only Clark (229) and Edwards (173) have scored more than that and both of those innings came in the 1997 World Cup. Swift runs (not that she scores them any other way) from Deandra Dottin and Merissa Aguilleira meant West Indies racked up a huge 368 for eight – a national record.
Sri Lanka were never in it and were bowled out for 159 but could still qualify. England play the West Indies and India take on Sri Lanka in the final round and not only are the winners of those games guaranteed to progress, but one other team will make it too, depending on net run-rate.
India and Sri Lanka are scheduled to play later, so both teams will know exactly what they have to do – both to win, and to qualify, and that is something that can sometimes work for you, or against you (just ask South Africa, who were faced with such a situation in the 2007 ICC WT20 in South Africa).
Keep your calculators close at hand!