England claimed their fourth ICC Women’s World Cup title in front of a packed partisan crowd at Lord’s on Sunday beating India by nine runs.
The hosts took home the coveted trophy in a match where the pendulum swung from one side to another on a constant basis.
As Mithali Raj’s India are left contemplating what could have been, we take a look at the three key moments in this topsy-turvy encounter.
Jhulan Goswami’s second spell
After the early departure of the English openers, Sarah Taylor and Natalie Sciver had combined to form a steady partnership which threatened to take away the game from the Indians. With England well-placed at 146/3, Goswami had Taylor caught behind while attempting to flick a delivery on leg stump off her pad.
The very next delivery she has Fran Wilson plumb in front to a well-executed yorker. Though a highly special hat-trick was prevented, there was no stopping Goswami who trapped Sciver a couple of overs later.
Goswami makes it two in two trapping Fran Wilson for nought.
England struggled to recover from the triple setback and what looked like a 250 runs plus score soon ended up at a much below par 228 runs.
Shrubsole sparks the England comeback
India was running away to a historic first women’s World Cup title at the same venue where the men’s team had sparked a cricket revolution 34 years ago. At 191 for the loss of three wickets in over number 43, few would have bet against an Indian victory with just 38 runs to get.
The wicket that changed it all – Shrubsole exults after dismissing Raut.
Anya Shrubsole though had other ideas and the England pacer who had huffed and puffed all match sparked the England comeback by trapping Punam Raut on the pads as she was caught dead on the crease. Raut looked to be playing a match-winning innings but her dismissal 14 runs short of a century opened the floodgates for England to claw back into the match.
Shrubsole’s double blow
Shrubsole wasn’t going to be merely satisfied by Raut’s dismissal. There was still a lot to do for England to pull off the unlikely, but Shrubsole could smell blood. In her next over, the medium pacer’s clever slower delivery had the free-flowing Veda Krishnamurthy miscuing a slog to mid-wicket.
As the hosts celebrated, India sent out the experienced head in Goswami to stem the flow. Shrubsole, though was having none of it and a full straight delivery two balls later had the veteran’s stumps broken along with probably a billion Indian hearts. The double blow has sounded the death knell for the Indian resistance and there was no recovering after that.