When Australia won the second Women's World Cup

It's quite sometime since you read about the first women's World Cup on this site. Let us now take a look at the second Women's World Cup, which was played in India. England, Australia and New Zealand flew to the sub continent in late 1977 to play each other in a round robin league format. The clashes happened in the well spread out venues of Calcutta, Jamshedpur and Hyderabad.

Australia and New Zealand, having made full tours to India in 1975 and 1976 respectively had some idea about the conditions they would be playing in. England however were playing in India for the first time and this could very well have worked against them.

England and Australia got off to a good start, winning against both India and New Zealand. This made the England - Australia clash at Hyderabad a crucial match. The winner of that match would walk away with the cup. As it happened, Friday the 13th 1978 proved to be a hard day to play cricket on. The wicket at Hyderabad was heavy with dew and made batting difficult. The toss proved to be a bad one to lose for England. After being reduced to 36/8, England managed to muster up 96/8 thanks to a 60 run ninth wicket stand between Shirley Hodges and Mary Pilling. For the Australians, Sharon Tredrea was the pick of the bowlers with 4/25. Although Australia struggled early on, they did not have the kind trouble England had earlier on in the day. Margaret Jennings with an unbeaten 57 saw Australia cruise to an 8 wicket victory in the company of Janet Tredrea (37 not out).

Holders England saw the World Cup slip from their grasp in less than 32 overs.

In the first World Cup, the highest innings score was 279 for 3 by England at Edgbaston in the decider against Australia in 60 overs. The second World Cup, in the subcontinent did not see the same kind of high scoring. The highest was 177 scored by Australia in 50 overs against New Zealand in their league tie at Jamshedpur. Hosts India picked up the dubious distinction of notching up the lowest total - 63 in 39.3 overs at Calcutta against England. The 67 runs scored by Barbara Bevage of New Zealand against India at Patna was the highest individual score while B Fritzsimmons of Australia took the most wickets, seven in three matches, conceding 53 runs at an average of 7.53. Margaret Jennings of Australia scored an aggregate of 127 runs in three innings in a equal number of matches, once not out with a highest score of 57.

Australia 3 3 - 6 England 3 2 1 4 New Zealand 3 1 2 2 India 3 - 3 -