Impressionistically, the 2017 Women’s World Cup has been a batsman’s tournament, with the bowlers suffering 14 hundreds scored by 13 different players.
Looking just at England v India, we have had four centurions in each team: Nat Sciver, Sarah Taylor, Tammy Beaumont, and Heather Knight for England; and Harmanpreet Kaur, Mithali Raj, Smriti Mandhana, and Punam Raut for India.
However, the numbers overall hint that this might be a Batting versus Bowling final.
In the 8 matches played, England have the batting edge – they’ve scored 2,039 runs at an average strike rate of 89; to India’s 1,723 runs at 74.
But India have the bowling wind at their backs – their bowlers have taken 58 wickets at an average economy rate of 4.37; whereas England’s have taken only 51 wickets at an economy of 4.53. In the field, India have also effected more run outs – 8, to England’s 5.
Of course – they haven’t been playing on the same pitches, so it might not be wise to read too much into this. Our inside info on the pitch at Lords suggests there should be good runs in it; but as for who will prevail on the day, as the Australia v India semi-final showed, all it takes sometimes is one special performance – it could be anybody’s game!
Batting | Team | Matches | Runs | Strike Rate |
1. Nat Sciver | England | 8 | 318 | 115.63 |
2. Sarah Taylor | England | 8 | 351 | 103.84 |
3. Harmanpreet Kaur | India | 8 | 308 | 104.05 |
4. Tammy Beaumont | England | 8 | 387 | 78.02 |
5. Heather Knight | England | 8 | 363 | 81.57 |
6. Mithali Raj | India | 8 | 392 | 71.01 |
7. Smriti Mandhana | India | 8 | 232 | 95.86 |
8. Punam Raut | India | 8 | 295 | 65.55 |
9. Fran Wilson | England | 7 | 159 | 103.24 |
10. Veda Krishnamurthy | India | 5 | 118 | 115.68 |
11. Deepti Sharma | India | 8 | 202 | 57.54 |
12. Katherine Brunt | England | 8 | 117 | 80.68 |
13. Danni Wyatt | England | 5 | 81 | 112.5 |
14. Jenny Gunn | England | 6 | 100 | 76.92 |
15. Lauren Winfield | England | 6 | 93 | 61.18 |
16. Laura Marsh | England | 4 | 37 | 142.3 |
17. Sushma Verma | India | 8 | 51 | 87.93 |
18. Jhulan Goswami | India | 8 | 68 | 53.54 |
19. Anya Shrubsole | England | 8 | 27 | 128.57 |
20. Ekta Bisht | India | 6 | 14 | 87.5 |
21. Mona Meshram | India | 3 | 24 | 35.82 |
22. Shikha Pandey | India | 6 | 7 | 77.77 |
23. Mansi Joshi | India | 2 | 6 | 60 |
24. Poonam Yadav | India | 8 | 6 | 54.54 |
25. Dani Hazell | England | 5 | 4 | 50 |
26. Alex Hartley | England | 7 | 2 | 28.57 |
Batting Ranking = Runs * Strike Rate
Bowling | Team | Matches | Wickets | Economy |
1. Deepti Sharma | India | 8 | 12 | 4.75 |
2. Poonam Yadav | India | 8 | 9 | 3.90 |
3. Shikha Pandey | India | 6 | 8 | 3.69 |
4. Ekta Bisht | India | 6 | 9 | 4.39 |
5. Alex Hartley | England | 7 | 8 | 3.93 |
6. Heather Knight | England | 8 | 8 | 4.81 |
7. Jhulan Goswami | India | 8 | 7 | 4.48 |
8. Laura Marsh | England | 4 | 6 | 4.00 |
9. Nat Sciver | England | 8 | 7 | 4.83 |
10. Katherine Brunt | England | 8 | 5 | 3.78 |
11. Anya Shrubsole | England | 8 | 6 | 4.60 |
12. Rajeshwari Gayakwad | India | 2 | 6 | 4.66 |
13. Dani Hazell | England | 5 | 6 | 5.54 |
14. Jenny Gunn | England | 6 | 5 | 4.75 |
15. Harmanpreet Kaur | India | 8 | 5 | 5.12 |
16. Mansi Joshi | India | 2 | 2 | 4.02 |
Bowling Ranking = Wickets / Economy