This wasn’t in the script. It was supposed to be Smriti Mandhana’s name on the Test Batting Honours Board for scoring the first hundred at Lord’s – on 69 overnight, it was written in the stars! But instead (plot twist!) it was Yastika Bhatia who raised her bat about 5 minutes after lunch on Day 3 of this historic Test. Smriti was batty; but Yastika was battier.

The Indian keeper-batter has been out of the team far more often than she has been in it over the past couple of years, partly due to a succession of injuries culminating in ACL surgery towards the end of last year. ACL surgery is every female athlete’s nightmare; but at Lord’s Yastika was in dreamland – the only player on either side to really master the conditions, bringing up her maiden international hundred off 145 balls.

Yastika was eventually out, caught on the ring for 113, as India looked to force the pace after lunch. The wicket was Ecclestone’s, and shortly afterwards she bowled Sneh Rana to bag her 5fer and become the first England woman to get on the honours board. Her teammates celebrated but Ecclestone didn’t – she knew the writing was on the wall as India’s lead passed 400.

By 3pm in the afternoon a declaration was looking iminent, with Harmanpreet spotted on the balcony in her whites, and Richa and Sayali throwing the bat at anything and everything. Ecclestone dropped Richa on 47, and she took a couple more overs to get to 50 via 3 more singles, but as soon as she did Harman called them in, setting England a target of 452.

Once more for those at the back, the highest ever 4th innings total in a Women’s Test is England’s match-saving 245 at Canberra in 2022; and the highest successful chase is just 198, by Australia versus England, in the match we mentioned in yesterday’s report which was the last time anyone overturned a 1st innings deficit to win a Test.

We’ve occasionally looked at chases in Women’s Tests, including that match at Manuka where England needed (and came within an Umpire’s Call of getting) 257, and thought: “Well, if this was an ODI it would be doable!” Here? Nah! In the friendly sweepstake I had with friends on how many England would get, I called 135… and was soon quite worried I’d overcooked it!

England’s top order folded quickly to 59-5, with a golden duck for Tammy Beaumont in her final innings for England, after a career that has included a record 12 ODI hundreds, a T20 century and a Test double-hundred. There were plenty of setbacks in the early years, but although I never held back (once writing that she should never have played for England!) she understood our role and never took it personally. Ultimately she did all the talking-back she needed to do on the pitch; and I have the uttermost respect for her for it. She’s a legend, and (if she wants it) she will one day make a fine England coach.

England fought back in the final hour with a partnership of 67 between Amy Jones and Mady Villiers, with Jones picking up a second half-century of the match. But realistically they were making India work a little bit harder for the win, rather than there being any possibility of England saving the game; and Villiers eventually fell to a weirdly “zen” catch by Richa at silly mid off, who just stood her ground where anyone with an ounce of sanity (!) would have leapt out of the way of a drive so full-on Lewis Hamilton would have been proud of it.

With Villiers gone, India are now into the tail – England closing on 130-6, with India now surely virtually certain to close out the win when we return for the final day tomorrow.

Last night, the MCC hosted drinks for the press and former England players in the Media Centre. It was a lovely occasion, though I regret to inform you that your correspondent’s attempts to indulge only in moderation were… shall we say… not entirely successful. Coffee was required in curative dosages this morning.

The words “not entirely successful” could equally apply to England’s batting today. During the current heatwave, the government’s official guidance is not to spend too long out in the sun – advice England’s top order took somewhat literally with Heather Knight, Alice Capsey and Maia Bouchier all scurrying back quickly to the safety of a shady balcony on the first floor of the pavilion.

If there is one thing more on-brand for Amy Jones than getting out in the softest way possible, it is following a run of low scores with a longer innings that does just enough to ensure that calls to drop her looked premature… and then getting out in the softest way possible, prodding forward with no real intent and popping a catch up to short leg. Has there ever been a player with such a unique ability to come in and seem set in an instant, playing the most beautiful strokes from the first ball; and then after batting for an hour, giving it up with a shot that looks like she’s never seen a cricket ball before in her life?

So on a day when England needed to ideally be something like 300 for 3-or-4 at stumps, Amy Jones did the hard work of getting to 50, but then left them a couple of wickets and 170 runs short of that. With a glass half-full, perhaps you are saying that she top-scored and got them to a position where they avoided the follow-on? But England needed someone to go deep, and if not the one batter that got to 50, then who?

Certainly it feels a bit much to expect Mady Villiers, coming in at 7, to have done that, and eventually she got a bullet with her name on it anyway – perhaps not quite as good as the delivery she herself bowled Harmanpreet with yesterday, but not too far off from Sneh Rana. I wonder now if it might have been better to push Villiers up the order a bit, so that she was batting with the batters rather than the start of a long, wobbly tail?

From an Indian perspective, Kranti Gaud gave an object lesson in bowling to your limitations – she’s not an express train; and she isn’t swinging it like a 50s lounge crooner; but she is bowling ball after ball to her plans and her fields. With the wicket of Lauren Bell (and thanks to a brilliant reaction catch from Shafali following Sneh Rana’s drop) she deservedly became the first woman on the Test honours board at Lord’s.

With the final wicket falling to Deepti, India led by 115 runs at the turn. Records are made to be broken, and batting ones seem especially vulnerable right now; but in the professional era (I think?) no one has overturned a 1st innings deficit to win a Test match – the last side to do it were Australia versus England at Sydney in 2011, when Australia declared behind in their 1st innings to get a few overs bowling at England late on Day 2. On that occasion in 2011, England survived 10 overs at the gloaming of that second day, with Caroline Atkins and a certain Heather Knight (whatever happened to her?) blocking everything that the Aussies could throw bowl at them.

In theory, India had 49 overs to bat out to the close of Day 2 here, though obviously no one actually expects 100 overs to be bowled in a Women’s Test any more – something we’ll discuss this weekend on this week’s CRICKETher Weekly. More importantly, India very-much did not come out to block anything that didn’t need blocking, at least until the shadows started drawing in towards the end of the day!

Shafali and Smriti have 16 Tests between them; but they batted this afternoon like it was 116. Each.

Everyone always expected Smriti to take to Test cricket like a tiger to a wounded deer, with her intelligence and classical strokeplay; but Shafali, having been pegged for years as a T20 “biffer”, has also developed a convincing Test persona, partly by shutting down her more risky options. She scored almost all her runs (and all of her boundaries) on the off side today; and it was only when she momentarily lapsed, trying to drive in the air through mid on, that she was caught by Emma Lamb, who looked… a lot more delighted about it than made much sense, given the state of the game!

Smriti meanwhile was cutting and pulling towards her second half-century of the match as India pulled away in the last hour. Smriti will almost certainly never play another Test at Lord’s – she’s 30 next week, and we all know how this works – now that the ECB/MCC have checked this match off the ICEC “To Do” list, they’ll feel vindicated and we won’t be back for another 10 years at least.

So it isn’t so much that Smriti won’t have a “better” chance as that she won’t have another chance at all to join Kranti Gaud on the honours board than she’ll get tomorrow, needing another 31 runs to do so. She’s had a little bit of a lean patch in recent months, after a purple 2024/25; but still no one in the world playing international cricket right now deserves it more.

India closed at 154-1 in their 2nd innings, just 16 short of England’s 1st innings total, with a lead of 269. Suffice it to say that no one has ever scored anything like that many batting last to win a Women’s Test – for England, even a draw now would be a miracle.

It might have taken a hundred years to get here, but when the moment came you can’t complain that Lord’s didn’t fully commit to its first ever Women’s Test.

A collage of old prints and photographs covered the walls of the Media Centre, depicting significant moments in the history of women’s cricket; while for the nearly 11,000 spectators who came to sit in the stands and the famous old pavillion, there were special commemorative t-shirts and hoodies on sale in the Lord’s shop.

Does the occasion ever matter more than the game? If ever it did, this was the occasion.

Like the display in the Media Centre, England’s selections looked towards the past, with two of the undisputed greats of the modern England era – Tammy Beaumont and Heather Knight – awarded the opportunity to bask in one final encore at cricket’s own Opéra Garnier. Even the debutantes were hardly fresh-faced cherubs – Alice Capsey has pulled on an England shirt almost 100 times before; while Mady Villiers will be 28 next month.

Like the XI that took this very-same field for the T20 World Cup Final less than a week ago, you’d be hard-pressed to describe this side as “forward-looking”; but it probably was close-to the best XI available. Once they decided Nat Sciver-Brunt was fit… or at least “fit enough”… to be sent once more unto the breach, I guess the conversations were around Emma Lamb vs Maia Bouchier and Tilly Corteen-Coleman vs Issy Wong.

Lamb is probably a more natural long-form player than Bouchier, but in the all-of-two opportunities they’ve each had, Bouchier has bagged a hundred while Lamb has a highest knock of 38. Wong’s selection over TCC likely came down to roles – England presumably figured that they needed a third seamer more than they needed a third spinner, especially with Mady Villiers bowling well enough to have been trusted with a decent amount of overs today.

Having won the toss and elected to bowl, England will have been hoping for quick wickets at a ground where so many wickets fell in the last (men’s) Test played here, between England and New Zealand in June, that the pitch was reported to the ICC a substandard. A wicket fell in that game on average every 25 balls.

England had India two-down in fairly short order – Shafali caught behind, hanging her bat out like it was Monday’s laundry; and Yastika bowled by a peach from Lauren Bell. But Bell soon looked tired; and Filer out of ideas, as Smriti and Jemimah began to build what was threatening to be a formidable partnership. England might not have enjoyed it, but the crowd got to witness two of the world’s most exciting batters, playing the kind of cricket the occasion deserved and looking like they could be doing it all day.

Cricinfo reported that “Jemimah’s knock was cut short on 35 by Wong” but in truth Jemimah’s knock was cut short by Jemimah, who really should have swiped-left on a ball that ugly, chasing it way outside off stump and chopping on.

The phase that followed could turn out to be a key one in the course of this match. Another quick wicket for England would have allowed them to put real pressure on India’s lower middle order; but instead Harmanpreet and Smriti rebuilt with some patience. The run rate slowed significantly, but India were the ones with time on their side; and the pair took the visitors close to 200 before they fell in quick succession – Smriti nicking behind; and Harmanpreet falling to a delivery that, if I’m honest, I didn’t think Mady Villiers had in her – doing a 3 point turn, reversing round the corner, and then parallel parking into middle stump.

This presented England with another window of opportunity which they again didn’t quite take, as Deepti worked with the tail to record her 5th Test 50, and take India past the psychologically significant 282 mark. What’s so special about 282? It is the highest score anyone has ever made in a Women’s Test and lost the match – New Zealand in 1969.

With India 9 down, and the shadows starting to creep onto the Lord’s outfield, the last thing England’s opening batters would have wanted was to go out and face 10 overs of the new ball after a long, hot summer’s day in the field; but Sophie Ecclestone wasn’t in the mood to hang around herself in the heat, so England’s Tammy Beaumont and Maia Bouchier were soon out in the middle with just over half an hour to negotiate.

It could have gone worse, I guess, with ball tracking showing that Heather Knight would have been toast and marmalade if India had reviewed an appeal from Kranti Gaud in the 8th over. But with Tammy Beaumont already halfway to the Post Office with her pension book in-hand, England go into day 2 at 21-1, optimistically already needing something quite special to even save this match, let alone win it.

This week:

• Hayley Matthews speaks out about financial disparities
• Where did South Africa’s tournament go wrong?
• We were wrong about Sophie Molineux
• Where next for NSB and England?
• Olympic qualification
• UK government call on ICC to recognise the Afghanistan Women’s team

The last time England faced Australia in a T20 World Cup (or, as it was then, “World T20”) final was in 2018 in Antigua. The 5 Australian players remaining from that day – Beth Mooney, Ash Gardner, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Molineux and Georgia Wareham – will have better memories than the 5 England ones – Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Amy Jones, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Heather Knight and Sophie Ecclestone. England batted first, and were bowled out for 105, with Australia cruising to victory by 8 wickets with almost 5 overs to spare.

Could England give Australia more of a run for their money batting first today?

Of course, before they could get down to business England had to perform the ancient “Amy Jones Ceremony”. For those of you who are new to this, it works a bit like the “Ceremonial First Pitch” in baseball, a long-standing tradition where a celebrity comes onto the field to throw a couple of pitches before the game proper starts. In England’s case, what happens is that Amy Jones comes out to bat for a ritual two or three balls before popping a catch to a nearby fielder, after which the match proper can begin.

No one understands why this is, or how such a tradition emerged, but simply that it must be carried out, or risk the wrath of all manner of angry gods. But thankfully it went off without a hitch – the deities were appeased, and England’s opening batters Nat Sciver-Brunt and Danni Wyatt-Hodge were able to proceed with getting the actual cricket match underway.

As we’ve said a couple of times in this tournament, Lord’s is not an easy place to bat – London Spirit General Manager Heather Knight diplomatically described it this week as “quite unique” – so you need to add 15-20 runs to any total to get a better feel for how good it is. This would put England’s 150 in the 165-170 range, which is much better than the 105 they made that day in Antigua 8 years ago; but very-much chasable for an Australian team that has been running high on confidence in this World Cup, although there were signs in the field that there were a few nerves today too.

That England got that many was down to Freya Kemp, who clearly did not get the memo about Lord’s being slow and low. Her undefeated 44 off 28 balls included more frantic thrashing than a Megadeth guitar solo, waging Holy Wars that elevated England from a projected 125-ish to the 150 they got. An innings of 44 at a Strike Rate of 157 feels like it should have been boundary after boundary; but Kemp hit just four 4s and one 6, which means she ran a lot – 14 singles and four 2s, to be precise!

She might be 21 now, but Kemp still has the bounding energy of a teenager who’s had one too many Starbursts, and although she sometimes gives the impression that she doesn’t have a clue where the ball is going, she certainly wasn’t giving up any chances today.  She has already spent about a third of her career injured – today showed how much England can ill-afford for that to be the case going forwards.

Support for Kemp came from Alice Capsey (23) who struggled a bit until she went after Ash Gardner, taking 15 from an over that went for 16 in all. In a very on-brand Capsey move, the confidence came rushing back a little too quickly, like blood to the head, and she was out trying to reverse Sophie Molineux a couple of balls later.

And of course, Nat Sciver-Brunt top-scored with 58 off 53, basically batting through the innings. It was all typical NSB efficiency; but it needed a little bit more if England were going to really get ahead of the game – 150 could have been enough; but England were going to need to bowl really well, or Australia bat really badly; and neither have been the case so far in this tournament.

England’s bowling problem is that they have a few good overs in them… and rather more poor ones – the only team they’ve bowled out in this World Cup was Sri Lanka, and that was off the final ball. If they couldn’t bowl out Ireland or Scotland, what hope did they have against Australia?

As it turned out… none!

Georgia Voll went early; though England can claim little credit for a cramped cut that she edged onto the stumps. Voll hasn’t had a great World Cup; but Australia have invested heavily in her, and her role seems to be to go hard, so they will stick by her.

Voll’s wicket, which left Australia 17-1, was pretty much as good as it got for England, as Phoebe Litchfield and Beth Mooney launched into a partnership which took the game away from England.

By the end of the powerplay it was all-but over as a contest, and the only remaining question was how hard England would make them work for the trophy?

Phoebe Litchfield (as she so often does) looked in scintillating form, right up until she didn’t; and it was Sophie Ecclestone who really got her out, even though the scorebook says “b. Dean”. Three consecutive deliveries from Ecclestone were too good for Litchfield as she tried to sweep, while Ecclestone ended up with her head in her hands wondering what she needed to do to get the wicket. The over finished with Litchfield literally slapping herself on the head with her gloves in frustration; and the next over Dean got her. The cameras inside the pavillion caught Litchfield continuing to punch herself in the head in frustration as she walked up the stairs to the dressing room. The commitment is admirable; but perhaps someone on the Aussie backroom team needs to help her find a slightly healthier way of handling it?

Dean celebrated the wicket, but England were visibly starting to deflate in the field by that stage. By the time Mooney joined Litchfield back in the dressing room, the result was inevitable; and the fuss over the Perry non-wicket should not have happened, although it does feel like Ecclestone was hard done by. It felt slightly reminiscent of the Commonwealth Games when England lost it during the bronze medal match – also under the non-leadership of NSB. On this occasion, at least Charlie Dean was there to intervene and try to calm Ecclestone down, and frankly to show the leadership that England are missing. Dean will almost certainly captain England’s next white-ball excursions against Ireland in September regardless, but (assuming she wants it) she should now be elevated to the job full-time, giving NSB the chance to focus on the thing she is actually good at – playing cricket – without the distractions of something she patently isn’t – i.e. captaincy.

England have far-from disgraced themselves in this tournament – under Charlotte Edwards they are a better team and a more likeable one. Notably there were tears at the end, which no one enjoys seeing, but which does show a degree of commitment that was absent under Jon “Walkabout” Lewis. The years under Lewis were wasted ones; those to come under Edwards will surely prove more fruitful.

As for Australia, having surrendered both World Cups in 2024 and 2025, they look rejuvenated under the leadership of Sophie Molineux. We wondered why a player who didn’t seem to quite make the team was elevated to the captaincy; we puzzled over the lengthy contract extension given to Head Coach Shelley Nitschke just weeks ago. All I can say is that someone looks pretty silly right now… and it’s not Sophie Molineux or Shelley Nitschke! (It’s me, ok – it’s me!) The natural order of the world has been restored, and Charlotte Edwards has her work cut out to find a way of unrestoring it. But you can be sure that there is no one who will work harder to do so.

It was the battle between the old warhorses: in the red corner, Heather Knight and Nat Sciver-Brunt, with 69 years and 597 caps between them; and in the blue yellow corner, Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail, with 74 years and 537 caps.

And so-being, it was also a battle between bat and ball: two of the most accomplished batters of their generation, Knight and Sciver-Brunt, versus two of the greatest bowlers, Kapp and Ismail. All four will go down as greats; but only two could be on the winning side tonight, and this time it was Knight and Sciver Brunt, whose partnership of 133 pulled England out of the mire and set them up for victory and the chance to face Australia in Sunday’s World Cup final.

The balance between bat and ball in cricket has been nurtured over hundreds of years, and it is a delicate one. A batter can of course only afford a single mistake; but on the flipside they can play much more of the game than a bowler. Kapp and Ismail bowled their maximum quota – 40% of the game; but Knight and Sciver-Brunt faced 78% of the balls. In the end, those numbers told.

As they have done generally in this tournament, South Africa made the decision to play all their biggest cards up-front, all-but bowling out Kapp and Ismail in the powerplay. It was a gamble that very nearly paid off in a match which South Africa did not come into as favourites. England scored just 35 runs in the powerplay, 17 of them from Ismail’s first over, which could so easily have gone the other way, with Danni Wyatt-Hodge twice trying to cut and getting bottom-edges which could have gone anywhere.

Before they knew it, England were 3 down – Jones out tamely caught on the ring; Wyatt-Hodge comprehensive bowled by Kapp; and Capsey given out LBW, declining to review when she would have been reprieved by the thinnest of edges. One more wicket, and South Africa would have been really on top, and possibly on their way to Lord’s; but Knight and Sciver-Brunt knew they had time to see off Kapp and Ismail, so they focussed on just getting through those overs.

England went nearly 3 overs without a boundary, which feels like a cardinal sin at that stage of the match; but the wily old warhorses knew what they were doing. When the bowling changes came, so did England’s acceleration, moving through the gears in the early middle overs, without ever getting reckless. Both faced exactly the same number of balls – 47 – with Sciver-Brunt pulling her way to 75, and Knight lofting herself over the ring to 58.

South Africa had burnt through both their reviews by the 10th over; but it didn’t turn out to matter, because neither gave any real chances until they were dismissed trying to lift the rate even higher at the death.

170 at The Oval is definitely an easier chase than the same number at Lord’s; but it was never going to be “easy” for South Africa, who needed Laura Wolvaardt to discover the big innings she’d failed to find within her in the tournament so far, with highs of 44 against Australia and 45 versus the Netherlands. Before the game she had promised the media that she hadn’t forgotten how to bat, and she there were a couple of glimpses of that, with two beautiful drives off Charlie Dean and Linsey Smith. But just as she looked like she might be finding the middle of her bat again, she lofted another drive over Sophie Ecclestone at mid on… only for Sophie Ecclestone to pull out a stunning leap and hang on to one of the best catches she will ever take.

Was it over then?

Not entirely; but England continued to bowl tightly, and their fielding was top-shelf stuff – Laphroaig to South Africa’s Johnnie Walker. England chased balls on the boundary that South Africa hadn’t got anywhere near, exemplified by Linsey Smith running one down at cover that looked 4 all the way off the bat – Smith diving headlong to make the pull-back, somersaulting over the boundary sponge, and then getting back up to put in the return throw.

The depth of South Africa’s batting means you feel can’t ever count them out. Against India, they’d come back from the dead once in this tournament already; thanks to a once in a lifetime hand from Kapp; but every time someone looked to stand up, England cut them down again. Sune Luus pummelled a lovely shot down the ground… and was caught by Ecclestone (another very decent take) directly after; Tazmin Brits passed 50… and then played a careless stroke to get caught off a thick edge on the ring.

By the time Nadine de Klerk came to the middle, however good she can be, it was never going to be good enough; and by the final couple of overs England knew they were off to Lord’s – the concentration levels dropped, and there was a bit of showboating; but Charlie Dean (for example) was probably right not to go for a catching opportunity at long on when South Africa needed 47 off the final over – why risk a ball in the teeth when the game is done?

Was this game the real test that England needed ahead of a final against an unstoppable-looking Australia? Not really; but England have done all that they could have – they have beaten the teams in front of them, and beaten them well. If Australia perform to their potential, England will struggle on Sunday, but if Australia give them in inch, can they take the mile they’ll need? We still don’t know the answer to that question; but I’m certainly more confident now than I was 3 weeks ago that the warhorses can win one final battle together.

Unsurprisingly, the bookies were right – the odds this morning on Australia winning this match were 1/25, meaning that if you’d placed a £25 bet, you’d have walked away with just £1 in profit. Gambling? It’s not worth it kids – you’d make more money working in McDonalds!

An official crowd of just over 10,000 (it is unclear if that number included the inflatable kangaroos?) saw Australia smite the West Indies at The Oval to reach an 8th T20 World Cup final.

The only real drama of the afternoon centred around Deandra Dottin, who fainted during the anthems and had to be airlifted from the field by her teammates. And because this is cricket, we were obviously given no information whatsoever about what had happened or how serious it was. Members of the press corps with access to Getty scanned their photo feeds for any titbit to be found, whilst others attempted to get something from the West Indies management on the ground; but until Dottin finally re-emerged with a bat in hand, my pet goldfish had a better idea what was going on that I did. And he died in 1982.

Dottin’s shift might have come late, but it was a handy one, as her and Jannillea Glasgow struck 41 off the last 4 overs to at least give the West Indies total a thin silver plate of respectability, requiring the Australian’s to chase (just!) over a run-a-ball. Had Dottin been able to come in earlier, things might have been different… but they probably wouldn’t have been – Dottin has averaged just 18 this year in T20 internationals, with a highest score of 39; and it has been 18 months since she recorded a 50.

Australia had actually never successfully chased 125 before, so perhaps there would be something about that exact number that would create some jeopardy for the all-conquering Aussies?

Nope! By the end of the powerplay they were at 99% on WinHer and that’s pretty-much where they stayed. There was a teeny blip after Ellyse Perry played out 5 dots before running a single and deciding to exit stage right with what the Aussie media manager termed “quad awareness” – a strange line perhaps, but it least it was “a line”, which is more than we’d had about Dottin!

Beth Mooney (61*) hit her 2nd undefeated half century of the tournament; Ash Gardner (35*) continued her da Vincian renaissance with the bat, looking in ominous form ahead of the final; and Australia won with 7 overs to spare. Whoever faces them in Sunday’s final has a heck of a job on their hands to keep them from what currently feels like an inevitable march towards the trophy.

The thing you notice when India are playing is the noise. It wouldn’t quite be accurate to say that Lord’s today was “a sea of blue” but there were a lot more blue shirts than yellow ones, and even the singles were cheered on with the kind of gusto England fans would struggle to muster for an over full of sixes. There are no right or wrong ways to watch cricket, but there are different ways, and this is India’s way: raise your flags and yell!

This was evident despite India playing a relatively circumspect hand during the powerplay. Having opted to bat on a used pitch at the Home of Cricket, they struck just one biggish over during the first 6 – 13 runs hit off Ash Gardner. Shafali drew screams for a couple of big 6s; but picked her battles on her way to 34 off 26.

And because it was India, there was a bit of drama, partly caused by the noisy crowd – Smriti running herself out after Jemimah failed to hear her call for a quick single. This brought Harmanpreet to the crease at what should have been the perfect moment for her, with 8 overs remaining and time to wind up before hopefully exploding in the Death Phase.

But the explosion wasn’t coming, and although Jemimah had a 6 spooned over the boundary by Georgia Wareham, she was pulled off the final ball of the 19th over to get Richa into the middle. As a strategy, it didn’t really work – if they were going to do it, they should have been more decisive and done it earlier; so as it was Richa took just a single off the one delivery she faced, which Jemi could equally have done. But at least that single got Harmanpreet back on strike to hit three consecutive 6s off Sophie Molineux to help take India to 170-4 off their 20 overs – a few short of the 186 England smashed against the West Indies here, but still a very competitive total for this ground.

The importance of those three 6s wasn’t just in the runs, but in the momentum it gave India coming into their bowling innings. I’ve watched this team a fair bit in the past few weeks, during the “warmup” series with England, and the group stages of this World Cup; and there was a different level of intensity to them in the field after that. We suspected they were a team that would lift themselves on the big day: this proved it.

But two can play at that game, and despite losing a wicket off the second ball; despite already having one-and-a-half feet in the semifinals thanks to their massive Net Run Rate advantage over their rivals, Australia went hard from the off, taking 23 from the first two overs. Tight overs from Renuka and Shafali, conceding just a single apiece, put the pressure back on Australia; but they counterpunched to finish the powerplay on 49-1, 6 ahead of where India had been.

The wicket of Beth Mooney in the 10th over swung the pendulum towards India, but it was temporary. Australia were relentless – India needed wickets, but Ellyse Perry (56) and Ash Gardner (53) were unstoppable, to the point of a rare run 4 in the 18th over.

There was little to fault with India’s efforts in the field – there were a couple of minor errors, but no real chances until Perry smashed one straight to Shafali; but by that point only 3 more were required and Shafali’s emotionless reaction said it all – India’s World Cup was over, with South Africa progressing to a semifinal against England on Thursday in their stead.

A crowd of thousands – over 27,000, in fact – might have gone home disappointed; but for a double-header involving four “neutral” teams, the remarkable fact is that they came in the first place – a pivotal day for this tournament, and a pivotal day for women’s cricket in England and around the world.

Coming into this final match in Group B (AKA the “Group Of Life”) the equations were simple – there was no math left to do and the Net Run Rate calculators could be left at home. With Ireland having beaten the West Indies in Bristol, England were already confirmed as group winners; while New Zealand just needed a win to join them in the semifinals.

(Although it was perfectly possible for New Zealand’s Net Run Rate to go down even if they won, it was nonetheless effectively impossible for it to go down enough to fall behind the West Indies – even if they had bowled England out for 1 (yes you read that right – one!) and then taken all 20 overs to get the 2 runs they required, New Zealand would still have had a better NRR than the Windies.)

With everything on the line, including the careers of Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine and Lea Tahuhu, all of whom were set to retire at the end of this World Cup, New Zealand played their best cricket of the tournament; but ultimately were swept aside by a raucous England batting performance, led yet again by Danni Wyatt-Hodge with her 3rd 50+ score of the tournament. Wyatt-Hodge finished on 89, and would almost certainly have scored another hundred if she’d had the runs remaining to do it.

At the other end Sophia Dunkley, who will almost certainly be dropped for the semi-final assuming Nat Sciver-Brunt is able to play, backed Wyatt-Hodge up with 49 not out off 38 balls – probably her most convincing outing of a summer where her highest score in 6 T20s coming into this World Cup was 26.

There are usually plenty of runs on offer at The Oval, so although New Zealand’s 163 was at the upper end of a typical score in T20 internationals between the teams competing at this tournament, it wasn’t a huge total. It was nonetheless much bigger than it could have been – New Zealand were heading to around 130 until a poor over from Dani Gibson in the 13th, followed by Sophie Devine plundering a couple of 6s off Charlie Dean in the 14th, gave them an uplift that carried them on to towards 160, which felt like the minimum which would be defendable here.

England will argue that Gibson and Freya Kemp took wickets – 3 between them – but they were expensive ones: Gibson conceding 30 runs from 3 overs; and Kemp 26 from 2. The combined figures of Danya Kempson – England’s “portmanteau allrounder*” – 5 overs, 3 wickets for 56, at an economy rate of 11.2. Of course, Kempson wasn’t needed with the bat today; but in the previous match she managed just 6 off 9 balls. The math… in the words of one of my favorite songs right now… just isn’t mathing, and it could yet prove a critical weak link in England’s gameplan.

Having won the group, England will be back here next week for a semifinal, almost certainly against either India or South Africa. India would need a victory over Australia of around 100 runs to leapfrog them at the top of Group A, so assuming they don’t achieve that, if India qualify in 2nd place in Group A, England will face them in the semifinals on Tuesday, in an afternoon game more friendly for Indian TV; else it will be South Africa on Thursday evening.

Some England fans have complained about this arrangement; but I like to think of it as a delightful mystery box gifted to us by the ICC! Will it contain India on Tuesday or South Africa on Thursday? We’ll find out at Lord’s tomorrow, with South Africa taking on Bangladesh, and then the big one: Australia v India.

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* © Richard Starkie