Mumbai: A hard-fought century by New Zealand vice-captain Amy Satterthwaite was in vain today (13 February) as the team lost to England by 15 runs in its final Super Six fixture and also failed to qualify for the final of the ICC Women’s World Cup India 2013.
Earlier in the day, West Indies beat Australia at the MIG Ground to secure itself a place in its first ICC Women’s World Cup final and thus forcing England and New Zealand to play again on Friday for the third-place play-off and a new global ranking each. England entered the ICC Women’s World Cup as the current world number one, while New Zealand came in ranked fourth in the Reliance ICC Women’s ODI Team Rankings.
Having won the toss and elected to bat, Charlotte Edwards and Sarah Taylor were back to their sublime batting best with the captain striking 54 while Taylor hit 16 boundaries on her way to 88 before departing after being caught by Nicola Browne.
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Scores in Brief:
At CCI
England 266-6, 50 overs (Edwards 54, Taylor 88; Doolan 2-25)
New Zealand 251-9, 50 overs (Bates 79, Satterthwaite 103; Colvin 3-48, Gunn 2-26)
England won by 15 runs
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England’s Heather Knight and Jenny Gunn added 38 for the seventh wicket and the side posted the respectable total of 266 for six after Lucy Doolan (2-25) and Morna Nielsen (2-57) claimed wickets for the White Ferns.
In response, captain Suzie Bates led from the front in the run-chase, striking 12-boundaries before departing for 79 after Gunn re-arranged the 25-year-old from Dunedin’s stumps. The innings was then guided by Satterthwaite’s 126-ball 103, which took the side to 214 and ever-closer to victory over England.
However, New Zealand’s batting could not sustain the momentum set up by Satterthwaite and Bates and some nifty bowling from Holly Colvin (3-48) and Jenny Gunn meant New Zealand fell short by just 15 runs.
Post-match, Bates was enigmatic about the defeat and admitted it was tough finding out mid-match that West Indies had beaten Australia to claim the second spot in the final: “It was disappointing today as both teams were going into the game playing for a spot in the final and it would have been easier to not to have known that West Indies had won. However, both teams are competitive and it was a good game of cricket at the end of the day and we both stepped up to the mark and ultimately finished the day with a good game of cricket.”
With regards to the format of the tournament and the fact the side will play England again, Bates said: “I think it doesn’t work out like this that often (that the final round of Super Six matches are then repeated in the play-offs). You can’t complain, if Australia had gotten up and beaten West Indies this could have been a totally different situation and we wouldn’t have had to play England again on Friday.
“I think having a Super Six gives teams everything to play for as the pool games count towards points for this stage and that means every game is crucial, it’s actually a better format than if you had a semi-final style where a team could potentially have one poor performance which means they lose out on the whole tournament even if they’ve done well in the group stage.”
England captain, Edwards said on missing out on a place in the ICC Women’s World Cup final: “I’m pretty heartbroken really, the tempo of the game changed and it was disappointing for both teams once we found out West Indies had won, but then I don’t know why I’m surprised about the West Indies win as this tournament has been full of surprises.
“Once we got over the disappointment halfway through I think we was all about a professional performance of the girls and I’m proud of how both teams went on to play and showed a really good display of women’s cricket despite the circumstances.”
Edwards admitted the current World Champions had not played as well as they should have, saying: “We came here to win this tournament and we haven’t, we haven’t even got into the final. But it’s not about that now, we were very inconsistent in the first phase of the tournament and we are possibly now playing our best cricket now which is too late, which is disappointing for us as players.
“It is tournament cricket and we’ve paid for our slow start and at the wrong time we’re really hitting straps but these players are world class players who will bounce back and that’s just tournament cricket.”
Edwards added that England had no excuses for its two early losses but the tournament had shown the world how much women’s cricket had improved, commenting: “There’s no excuses from us in the two losses, we didn’t hold our catches and we didn’t play well enough against Sri Lanka, who have also really improved.
“The great thing for me sitting here now, although it’s disappointing for England but with my women’s cricket hat on, it’s exciting that the teams are coming closer together, teams are beating teams that you would never have expected, so globally we’ve got to be very proud of what this tournament has done for women’s cricket, but with my England hat on I’m pretty much heartbroken.”