Written by: Benito Vergotine
Australia are the ICC Women’s World Cup champions. They are now the seven time World Champions and have had a clean sweep at this year’s finals. Terrific achievement.
Their celebrated and expected victory has been widely acknowledged and savoured by fans and the home side. Australia are now the holders of both World Cups and The Ashes. It was a fitting end to what has been a terrific tournament. Despite the challenges , Covid and travel – the organisers ensured that all teams and staff were well accommodated and tendered too during their stay in New Zealand.
The final itself was a Alyssa Healey affair with the Aussie smashing the record books with an unbeaten 170, the highest ever score in a final.
England captain Heather Knight rued her decision to field first. Healy’s record partnership with Rachael Haynes set the teams apart, and the chances England gave the two batters did not help their cause. A cardinal sin at this level.
England will now regroup with lots of preparation for their upcoming fixtures which include a test, ODI and T20 series against South Africa starting in June.
During the tournament I spoke to Dr Swart Aries from Qatar University about the team and how women’s cricket continues to grow and develop. Kamilla did reflect on South Africa’s performance on the cricket world stage which brought up awful memories of our capitulation at key points in respective tournaments. It resulted in SA cricket unfairly being weighed under the yoke of chokers!
Critics have given the women’s team that tag following their semi final exit at the hands of England. I do feel that it is not justified. Are we now indiscriminately labelling any loss as a result of ‘choking‘? Are we that intolerant of failure?
The semi finals followed a similar pattern with both fixtures being one sided affairs. Are we then suggesting that the Windies are also chokers following their trouncing by Australia?
I am proud of the team’s achievement. Laura Wolvaardt, Marizanne Kaap, Shabnim Ismail , Ayabonga Khaka all highlighted the growth of this unit. The team had a credible tournament and have positives to build upon as they prepare for their tour of England in a few months.
Their semi final loss was tough as a fan but we also have to credit the opposition for the pressure they put South Africa’s under. Does this mean they choked?
Sometimes the opposition is simply too good!
