1997 Women's Cricket World Cup final

1997 Women's Cricket
World Cup Final

Event	1997 Women's Cricket World Cup
New Zealand Australia 164 165/5 49.3 overs 47.4 overs
Australia won by 5 wickets
Date	29 December 1997
Venue	2000 →

The 1997 Women's Cricket World Cup Final was a

Both teams finished top of their respective groups in the first stage of the competition, and won their quarter-finals by a wide margin. In the semi-finals, Australia beat the hosts, India by 19 runs in a rain-reduced match, while New Zealand defeated England by 20 runs. The New Zealand captain, Maia Lewis won the toss and opted to bat first. Her side were bowled out for 164 runs. Only three New Zealand players reached double figures, including Debbie Hockley, whose score of 79 earned her the player of the match accolade. In their response, Australia started well, and a second-wicket partnership of 71 runs between Belinda Clark and Michelle Goszko meant that despite some late pressure from the New Zealand bowlers, Australia reached the winning total with 14 deliveries remaining.

Background

The 1997 Women's Cricket World Cup was the sixth Women's Cricket World Cup. The first had been held in 1973, pre-dating the first men's Cricket World Cup by two years. The 1997 tournament featured eleven teams, the most in the tournament's history;^[1] Australia, Denmark, England, India, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.^[2] The tournament had originally been scheduled to feature twelve teams: Japan and Canada were each invited but unable to take part, and a late attempt to involve Bangladesh also failed.^[3] The tournament took place between 9 and 29 December 1997, featuring 33 matches over 21 days.^[4] Australia and England had won all of the previous tournaments; Australia had three titles, and England, the reigning champions, had two.^[1]

Route to the final

Australia

Australia competed in Group A of the competition, along with Denmark, England, Ireland, Pakistan and South Africa. Their first match, against Ireland, was abandoned due to rain which washed out three of the first five contests, meaning that Australia and Ireland shared the points. Facing South Africa two days later, Australia restricted their opponents to 163 runs, and then chased down the total without loss; their openers, Belinda Clark and Joanne Broadbent scored 93 and 61 respectively. In their third match, Australia faced Pakistan,^[5] who had only formed their team the previous year.^[6] Australia bowled Pakistan out for 27, the fifth lowest total in Women's One Day Internationals,^[a] and won the match by nine wickets. Against Denmark in their next match, Clark scored 229 not out, the first double century scored in women's or men's One Day International cricket.^[5] Australia finished on 412 for three,^[b] which is the highest total in a Women's World Cup match,^[8] and after bowling Denmark out for 49 runs, they also secured the largest margin of victory in Women's World Cup history, winning by 363 runs.^[9] In their final group stage match, Australia bowled England out for 95, and completed an eight-wicket win with more than 23 overs remaining. They finished top of Group A with 27 points, and qualified for the quarter-finals.^[5]

Australia faced the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. After winning the toss, Australia chose to bat first, and scored 223 for four; Bronwyn Calver scored 74, and Mel Jones 43. In response, the Netherlands were restricted to 108 for six, meaning that Australia progressed to the semi-finals after securing a 115-run victory. In the semi-finals, Australia met India, who had finished second in Group B. The hosts won the toss and invited Australia to bat first in a match which was reduced to 32 overs per side due to rain. Australia scored 123 for seven led by scores of 33 and 31 from Broadbent and Clark. Due to a slow over rate, India were penalised two overs, and so only had 30 overs in which to bat. They closed their innings on 104 for nine; Cathryn Fitzpatrick took three wickets for Australia as they won by 19 runs.^[5]

New Zealand

New Zealand were placed in Group B, which due to the uneven number of teams, only featured four other sides; India, Netherlands, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.

Drawn against Ireland in the quarter-finals, New Zealand chose to bat first, and scored 244 for three; Hockley and Emily Drumm each made half-centuries. They then restricted Ireland to 105 for nine during their chase, to secure a 139-run victory. In the semi-finals, they faced England, who had finished as runners-up in Group A. The four semi-finalists were the same teams which had finished as the top four teams at the 1993 Women's Cricket World Cup. New Zealand once again batted first after winning the toss, and scored 175 for six; Hockley and Withers were their top-scorers with 43 and 35 respectively. As in the other semi-final, the second innings was shortened, as England were penalised one over for a slow over-rate, though the England team protested that the umpires had not allowed extra time for a number of stoppages during the New Zealand innings. As it was, England were bowled out for 155; New Zealand won by 20 overs and secured their second successive final.^[5]

Match

Summary

The final was held at the Eden Gardens, in Calcutta, India, on 29 December 1997. The crowd was reported to be in excess of 50,000, partly due to the local government providing transportation for local women to attend the match,^[5] though estimates varied. A state government official suggested the crowd to be around 80,000,^[10] while the Australian team manager Chris Matthews provided a more modest estimate of "more than 25,000".^[11] In 2017, reflecting on the match, Clark said: "To this day, I don't know how many people were there at Eden Gardens that day. I've heard different variations. One thing I can tell you, though, is my eardrums were buzzing; I hadn't played in front of such a crowd ever before."^[12] The attendance was unusually high for a women's cricket match; Melinda Farrell, an Australian cricket journalist, described it as "an outlier in women's cricket for 23 years".^[13] Some of the players found the atmosphere distracting, as it was something they were unused to; Hockley said that it was difficult to hear the others players, and "until you're there you don't realise that's actually what happens. It probably happens at men's games all the time."^[13]

• Toss: New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first
• Result: Australia won by five wickets[15]

Umpires:

• Aloke Bhattacharjee and S. Choudhary

Key

• * – Captain
• † – Wicket-keeper
• c Fielder – Indicates that the batter was dismissed by a catch by the named fielder
• b Bowler – Indicates which bowler gains credit for the dismissal
• c & b Bowler – Indicates that the batter was dismissed by a catch by the bowler
• lbw – Indicates the batter was dismissed leg before wicket
• st – Indicates the batter was stumped

Aftermath

Hockley was named as