ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat joins teams, spectators and officials at NSO to observe a minute’s silence out of respect for those people killed or injured during Tuesday’s terrorist attack in Lahore
Photos from the NSO match available through Getty Images; images from Newcastle match available free of charge from the ICC FTP site
New Zealand overcame batting hiccups to upset defending champion Australia in a crucial ICC Women’s World Cup 2009 match in front of ESPN STAR Sports’ live TV cameras and 1,350 spectators at the picturesque North Sydney Oval on Sunday.
New Zealand, put into bat, was bowled out for 205 in 48 overs after being 171-3 in 40 overs with a batting PowerPlay in hand. The Kiwis then fought back gallantly to restrict Australia to 132-6 before the match was abandoned due to bad light and light showers to win the match by 13 runs, according to the Duckworth-Lewis method.
The victory has enhanced New Zealand’s chances of topping Group A with matches still to come against the West Indies and South Africa. As favourite to win both those games, it may well take four carry-over points in the Super Six stage which will boost its chances of making the 22 March final.
In another match, at Newcastle, the West Indies defeated South Africa by two wickets with eight balls to spare in a hard-fought match. With this victory, West Indies has all but sealed a place in the Super Six stage as both the teams will have matches against Australia and New Zealand. By contrast, South Africa, if it finishes at the bottom of the table from Group A, will be left to play in the seventh/eighth-place play-off against the bottom-placed team from Group B on 14 March.
Seventeen-year-old Stafanie Taylor was the star for the West Indies when she recorded impressive figures of 8.2-2-17-4 as South Africa, which elected to bat first after winning the toss, was bowled out for 116 in 45.2 overs after losing its last seven wickets for 22 runs.
Only opener Alicia Smith offered any significant resistance while scoring 46 that came off 109 balls and included four fours. She was the fourth batter out at the score of 94 in the 38th over.
The West Indies, in its turn at the wicket, made hard work of that target before achieving victory with two wickets and eight balls to spare.
The West Indies made a shaky start when it lost both the openers at the score of 16 but recovered through a 45-run third-wicket stand between Shanel Daley (26) and Stacy-Ann King (13). However, Afy Fletcher (nine off 70 balls) and Cordel Jack (19 runs off 52 balls) batted slowly and almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
West Indies captain Merissa Aguilleira was relieved and happy with the victory. “We are very happy and all the girls worked hard for this. We knew what we had to do and we came out and did it.
“We knew we could take our time (getting the runs), the girls didn't rush anything. Even though it took a long time at the end of the day we came away with the win.”
Player-of-the-match Stafanie Taylor said: “Yeah, I'm very pleased with my performance and happy with the win. We were very confident (in reaching the target), but while chasing small totals anything could happen.
“It was a pretty good wicket for batting, we would have liked to bat first but we came away with the win. There was a bit in it (the pitch) for the pace bowlers, the spinners didn't get much turn - I didn't get as much turn as I would have liked."
South Africa captain Sunette Loubser was disappointed with her team’s batting display. She said: “A little bit (disappointed) is not the word for it at the moment. We made a meal of the batting today. I think the bowlers did really well to almost defend that score. Our batting disappointed us a lot as we lost six wickets for 22 runs right at the end.
“No one’s to blame. It’s the whole team thing but we just need to score more runs to be able to defend it. The girls showed a lot of heart and passion to almost defend it like they did. They never gave up and I'm proud of that fact.”
However, the Australia and New Zealand game was the feature match of the day. It started with ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat joining the players, match officials and spectators in observing a minute’s silence out of respect for those people killed or injured during Tuesday’s terrorist attack on the convoy containing the Sri Lanka squad and the match officials.
Put into bat, New Zealand squandered a good start to score only 205 all out in 48 overs.
Captain Haidee Tiffen provided her team with the platform on which New Zealand should have built on but some poor stroke-play and a tactical error led to the team to lose its last seven wickets for only 36 runs off eight overs.
While the Australia team took its PowerPlay between 11 and 15 overs in which New Zealand scored 29 runs and lost one wicket, New Zealand delayed its batting PowerPlay until the 46th over and could use only three overs in which it scored 24 runs, including 14 off the 48th over bowled by Ellyse Perry, and lost both the remaining wickets.
Tiffen finished as the leading scorer with a well played 57 off 113 balls with six fours. She received good support from Suzie Bates (29), Amy Satterthwaite (38) with whom she added 67 runs for the third wicket, and Sara McGlashan (29), with whom she put on 62 runs for the fourth wicket.
Perry was the pick of Australia's bowlers with 3-40 despite dislocating the little finger of her right hand while Lisa Sthalekar and Erin Osborne bagged two wickets each.
Australia, in its target chase, never got to the take-off point and kept losing wickets at regular intervals before rain and bad light stopped play with the home team requiring 74 runs off 112 balls with four wickets remaining.
Kate Pulford caused maximum damage when he claimed 3-32 while new-ball opener Sophie Devine picked up 2-19. Pulford was later declared player of the match.
Reflecting on today’s performance Tiffen said: “I am delighted with the victory over the world’s number-one team but I think we should have scored around 240 or 250. Losing seven wickets for 36 runs is not our standard and we certainly need to look at this area and try to not only bat all 50 overs but need to convert good starts into big scores.
“Just before I got out, we were going to take our PowerPlay. In hindsight, we should have taken our PowerPlay before that over. With losing all those wickets, it certainly was not the plan to take it so late. But it is certainly a thing which we will look at and try to get it right next time.”
Scores in brief:
At North Sydney Oval, Sydney, New Zealand 205 all out, 48 overs (Haidee Tiffen 57, Amy Satterthwaite 38, Sara McGlashan 29, Suzie Bates 29; Ellyse Perry 3-40, Lisa Sthalekar 2-35, Erin Osborne 2-37)
Australia 132-6, 33 overs (Shelley Nitschke 27, Jodie Fields 26 not out, Karen Rolton 21; Kate Pulford 3-32, Sophie Devine 2-19)
New Zealand won by 13 runs (D/L method)
At No 1 Sports Ground, Newcastle, South Africa 116 all out, 45.2 overs (Alicia Smith 46; Stafanie Taylor 4-17)
West Indies 117-8, 48.4 overs (Shanel Daley 26)
West Indies won by two wickets
Monday’s fixture:
Sri Lanka v Pakistan, Manuka Oval, Canberra
ICC Women's World Cup 2009 - News Sunday, March 08, 2009 6:44:31 AM
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