Like watching paint dry

	Brittin, not in crawl mode © Getty Images Enlarge

1988, Australia
Janette Brittin

My memories aren't very happy ones because it was not one of England's best tournaments, and it certainly wasn't for me personally. England may have reached the final, but unfortunately we didn't make much of a game of it. It was quite a painful experience.

I remember standing in the dressing room at the MCG and looking out into the vast stadium and thinking, "Wow, this place is just massive." The ground was wall-to-wall seating with no one sitting in them, which didn't lend itself to a big-match atmosphere. We won the toss and elected to bat on a slow, low track. Lyn Fullston, or Lefty as the Aussies called her, did all the damage with her unorthodox slow left-arm spin, and she was ably assisted by Lyn Larsen, the Australian captain and legspinner.

It was like watching paint dry and then playing in glue when you got out there (or so it seemed). Struggling to break through the ring and get the scoring ticking over was just awful. We crawled to a paltry total of 127. Then to our dismay the Australians came out and appeared to blast their way to our total. I remember the ground seemed a very large and a very lonely place during those overs.