2009 Women’s Cricket World Cup Final

The 2009 Women’s Cricket World Cup Final was played on 22 March 2009 at the North Sydney Oval in Australia. England won the final by four wickets, clinching their third World Cup title and their first outside England. New Zealand captain Haidee Tiffen won the toss, and opted to bat first. Lucy Doolan, batting at number nine, was the highest scorer for New Zealand with 48.

About 2009 Women’s Cricket World Cup Final in brief

Summary 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup FinalThe 2009 Women’s Cricket World Cup Final was played on 22 March 2009 at the North Sydney Oval in Australia. England won the final by four wickets, clinching their third World Cup title and their first outside England. It was the second time that the two teams had met at this stage of a World Cup – England won their previous final contest in 1993. New Zealand captain Haidee Tiffen won the toss, and opted to bat first. Lucy Doolan, batting at number nine, was the highest scorer for New Zealand with 48. England built an opening partnership of 74 runs and continued to score steadily, reaching the winning total with 23 balls to spare. Nicky Shaw, who had initially not been in the England starting lineup, was named player of the match having replaced the injured Jenny Gunn minutes before the game started. The 2009 tournament included eight teams; six of which qualified automatically due to finishing as the top six teams at the 2005 World Cup, while the other two qualified through the 2008 Women’s cricket World Cup Qualifier. Matches, which consisted of 50 overs-per-side, took place at several cricket grounds in Australia between 7 and 22 March, featuring 25 matches over 16 days. In 2008, England, and then Australia, became the first teams to introduce contracts for some of their women’s players; Charlotte Edwards, England’s captain, said that this allowed the players to ‘commit to training without worrying about our jobs outside cricket’ New Zealand were drawn in Group A of the competition, along with Australia, South Africa and the West Indies.

They started their campaign against Australia. After an initial rain delay held up the game, a second downpour finished the match, with Australia 13 runs short by the Duckworth–Lewis method. For many matches, New Zealand suffered a collapse, losing their first six wickets for 104 runs. Aimee Mason deputised as captain, and helped New Zealand to remain competitive in the match. According to Cricinfo, the West Indian reply was devoid of momentum, and the Spiners bowlers took three wickets apiece to limit West Indies to 136 runs for the loss of eight wickets from eight overs. In their final group stage match against South Africa, Amy Satterwaite, Nicola McGlashan and Sara Satterthwaite scored all half-centuries for the South African side. In the final group match against Australia, they won the group match by a wickets-to-wickets ratio of 1-0. The match was the first to be organised by the International Cricket Council. The first had been held in 1973, pre-dating the first men’s CricketWorld Cup by two years. In 2007, the ICC had successfully developed and expanded the women’s game, from 15 member countries in 2005 to 42 in 2007. There was a growing gap between the top four teams—Australia, England,. India and New Zealand—and the rest. It is an open tournament with no clear-cut favourites, and any team can beat the other on its day.