Key events
21st over: India 122-1 (Shafali 58, Jemimah 9) Oh my, Shafali is dropped on 56, a high ball drops into Bosch’s hands at deep midwicket, and then straight out again. Now Jemimah drives through extra-cover with tinkling bells for four.South Africa need to hold on here.
20th over: India 114-1 (Shafali 56, Jemimah 3) Four dry singles for Jemimah.
18th over: India 111-1 (Shafali 53, Jemimah 3) A handful of singles off Luus.
Fifty for Shafali
18th over: India 106-1 (Shafali 50, Jemimah 1) Just as the television commentators say that India have struggled against slow left-arm spin, Smriti, after a lofted-off drive for four, loses concentration. South Africa breathe. And a fifty for Shafali, who wasn’t even in the ODI squad till injury to Pratika Rewal during India’s final group game.
WICKET! Smriti c Jafta b Tryon 45 (India 104-1)
Tryon with the breakthrough! Absolute silence as Smriti leans back to cut but just edges through to the keeper.
17th over: India 97-0 (Smriti 39, Shafali 48) Luus. Thick brown ponytail, very front on action. After just one from the first four balls, Smriti leans and sweeps to the rope, sweetness itself.
16th over: India 92-0 (Smriti 35, Shafali 47) Mlaba fizzing through her overs like a Catherine Wheel. The players take DRINKS with India absolutely on top.
15th over: India 89-0 (Smriti 34, Shafali 45) Oh wow! SIX, through the line, straight, Shafali is pumping now. This is the highest opening stand of the World Cup. De Klerk pegs her back for the rest of the over.
14th over: India 80-0 (Smriti 33, Shafali 38)A certain four stopped on the rope by a diving, sliding, Dercksen, long blond plait down to her bottom. She grins. But Smriti does make it count, cutting her past point for four.
13th over: India 71-0 (Smriti 28, Shafali 35) De Klerk again, five from the over but no boundary. Kapp is talking to herself, looking intense. The stadium is humming with expectation.
12th over: India 65-0 (Smriti 27, Shafali 31) And another tight over from Mlaba, just a single squeezed from it. Have just spotted Clare Connor in the crowd too, deep in conversation.
11th over: India 65-0 (Smriti 27, Shafali 30) The highest power play for India of this WC but de Klerk again holds them to a single. Will the pressure start to tell.
10th over: India 64-0 (Smriti 27, Shafali 29) Mlaba stems the flow.
9th over: India 63-0 (Smriti 27, Shafali 28) A double change as De Klerk replaces Kapp. Four more, driven past a diving point by Smriti, high, proud elbow. The flags are flying in the stadium, the crowd a good mix of men and women.
8th over: India 58-0 (Smriti 23, Shafali 27) Wolvaardt turns to Mlaba. And her first ball is dispatched to the rope too, through the covers – BANG. Wolvaardt prevents, just, another near-four.
7th over: India 51-0 (Smriti 21, Shafali 22) Kapp unable,to manifest wickets in the way she could against England in the semi-final. She drifts leg side inviting Smriti to turn her off her boots for four, who accepts.
6th over: India 45-0 (Smriti 16, Shafali 21) Loving the strain of Gimme Hope Jo’anna between overs. India flying after six. Smriti strokes Khaka behind backward point for four, then a cover drive to die for. Then four wides.
5th over: India 31-0 (Smriti 7, Shafali 21) Kapp chews her shiny black painted nails as Shafali blasts her through the covers for four, and then, next ball, turns her wrists like a doorknob and whisks her through midwicket for four more.
“Starbuck’s quip about detergent reminds me of a joke,” writes Krishnamoorthy. “Surf failed in Pakistan because their advertisement campaign depended on a billboard with 3 panels.dirty cloth- surf detergent- sparkling white cloth. Surf did not factor in the fact that Urdu is written from right to left.”
4th over: India 22-0 (Smriti 6, Shafali 13) Again the first ball of Khaka’s over is dispatched to the rope by Shafali. Then some handy strike rotation. But, Ian Bishop points out, Khaka is finding inswing that Kapp isn’t.
3rd over: India 13-0 (Smriti 5, Shafali 6) The lights are already on at the DY Patil. Kapp is furious that she concedes a wide and then Smriti attacks another ball with width, posting it through the gap at point.
In the crowd, Sachin Tendulkar chats to ICC nepo-baby supremo Jay Shah.
2nd over: India 7-0 (Smriti 1, Shafali 5) Ecstasies for the crowd as Shafali pounds Kaka’s first ball through point, with planted powerful front leg.
“What is the record for Women’s WC final victories? asks Ruth Purdue. Is it mostly for the chasing team?”
Since 2000, five times out of six the team that batted first have won. But only one of those games was in India.
1st over: India 0-0 (Smriti 0, Shafali 0) Kapp with the new ball, and what do you know, it’s a maiden.
Anthems
Tarryn Lamb sings the South African anthem, gloriously. Marizanne Kapp has her eyes and lips tightly shut. The rest of the team sing along with gusto.
Sunidhi Chauhan in a royal blue sari with India’s anthem. The stadium sings as one. Harmanpreet smiles and looks to the sky.
As we wait for the anthems, John Starbuck with the big question of the day. “After all that rain, no matter what the ground staff can do, the players of both sides will have a massive laundry bill. So who do they use, and is there a sponsorship in place? The PR kudos must be massive.”
I’m convinced the IPL will have a sponsored detergent.
The stands are a mighty ocean of blue. A reminder than South Africa have never been in a World Cup final before. Some task they have ahead of them.
An unchanged South Africa
South Africa XI: Laura Wolvaardt (capt), Tazmin Brits, Anneke Bosch, Sune Luus, Marizanne Kapp, Annerie Dercksen, Sinalo Jafta (wk), Chloe Tryon, Nadine de Klerk, Ayabonga Khaka, Nonkululeko Mlaba.
An unchanged India
India XI: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Amanjot Kaur, Radha Yadav, Kranti Gaud, Shree Charani, Renuka Singh.
South Africa win the toss and will bowl!
Harmanpreet tosses, Wolvaardt calls. A weather-influenced plump for the ball.
“There’s a bit of rain around and it’s a nice chasing ground with a bit of dew.” says Wolvaardt. “We’re hoping for a bit of stickiness with the ball early on but it looks a really good wicket. Our first game here at Mumbai, but not worried, I think we’ve been pretty good adjusting at the powerplay.”
A huge roar when Harmanpreet gets the microphone. She thinks batting first might not be a hindrance as they can bat freely. After five or six overs, she doesn’t think there will be much in the surface because of the rain around and due to the ball getting wet.
Both sides are unchanged.
The players are out in the middle warming up. It is looking promising. If you’re at the DY Patil, please give us watching enviously at home a taste of the atmosphere.
Toss at 11am GMT – start at 11.30am
If the weather behaves.
The mop-up begins
We haven’t lost any overs yet in Navi Mumbai. Though I am counting down the remaining hours of daylight here in Manchester – where the sky at the moment is a perfect cornflower blue, to complement the burnished gold leaves and burnt orange crab apples.
And thank you for educating me on Navi Mumbai. A selection of emails.
Arul Kanhere: “Navi (or New) is an extension added to the old city of Mumbai. As the people stacked into the metropolis for work and employment, the city kept growing and is now a part of the wider metropolitan region. That is called the MMRDA, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Area.”
Mittu Choudhary again: “Also NAVI Mumbai is a twin city – which came up to support the burgeoning Bombay population in the 80s-90s. Now it’s grown into its own and considered one of the best cities to live in in India.”
And Krishnanmoorthy: “Bombay grew along its two arterial local train routes. Central and Western. At some point in time, when the exploding population (Bombay has more people than Czech, Slovakia and Austria combined) could not be accommodated any longer, a satellite city came up. Away from both the train routes and towards Pune. Lack of creative thinking gave it an ordinary name New Bombay which was then changed to Navi Mumbai bowing to linguistic pressures. The local joke goes this way: Pune is closer to Navi Mumbai than Munbai is.”
The rain is slowing.
“This talk of Wisden Monthly reminded me of when I was a cricket obsessed teen looking to devour anything cricket I could get my hands on,” writes Mittu Choudhary.
“This was somewhere in 2004 when I came across Wisden Cricket Asia (maybe the Asia edition of the WCM) at the newsstand and mobilised all my resources to get my copy a month later. Only to see a letter from the editor in my second copy that printing was ceasing and I was holding the last copy of Wisden Asia Cricket :(. Also on my way to the stadium now and it’s absolutely pouring – it’s not looking good.”
A heartbreaking tale Mittu!
Just going to make a quick cup of coffee, back shortly.
And it rains on, soggy underfoot in Navi Mumbai. And the forecast for tomorrow is even worse.
Raf confirms. “If they can’t get in the minimum overs today (20 per side) they will resume tomorrow where they left off. It would be the same number of overs as decided by the umpires today – they wouldn’t bump it back up to a full game.”
A question. Is Navi Mumbai considered a suburb of Mumbai? Is it a Salford/Manchester kind of thing?
And hello Chris Kibathi! “We are following from Nairobi, Tanya.
“Obviously rooting for Africa as we have always done ever since Lance Klusener’s heroics ended in heartbreak in London ‘99.”
Such happy memories of that great World Cup – was the first one I worked at, as part of the team at Wisden Cricket Monthly under Tim de Lisle, who will take over for today’s second innings, if it ever happens. I wasn’t at Edgbaston for that Klusener game but was at the “you’ve just dropped the World Cup mate” match – or at least I think I was. Can’t quite pin it down through the mists of time.
A message drops. “I am emailing from Manila, Philippines,” writes Jeremy Flint. “While we are waiting perhaps you could explain the contingencies for using the spare day (ie is that only possible if we don’t get the 20 over minimum for a DLS game or is there a special criteria for the final?)“
Flicking through my metaphorical book of playing conditions… I think we get two extra two hours today to get the game done, and we don’t start losing overs until the start is two hours late. The match must have a minimum of 20 overs per side.
But…and thanks to the BBC for this, if one side bats 50 overs but fewer than 20 overs are bowled of the chase, the game will resume from the same point tomorrow.
While we wait for news of this Mumbai damp, gen up on your South African history with this great read from Firdose Moonda.
More rain
Ian Ward, Isa Guha and Nasser Hussain are sheltering under huge umbrellas as they chew the fat.
Guha speaks beautifully about the occasion.
“Just like 2017, when people said that Lord’s could never be sold out for a women’s final, like 2020 when 80,000 turned up to the MCG and now today [where people were queing for non-existent tickets on Saturday], I’m just so happy for the girls.
“I always think about Rachael Heyhoe-Flint on days like today, the way she was able to campaign to make that first World Cup happen in 1973. All those women who went out on the street and were selling tickets to try and get people to come and watch to be told that women’s cricket wasn’t good enough, not strong enough not skilled enough. This defies all of that.
“We’ve seen throughout this tournament that the skill levels have gone up massively, the levels of competition, to have a new name on the trophy – Alyssa Healy spoke really well about the legacy for Indian cricket. We saw what the men’s World Cup win did in 1983, [the women]can absolutely do that today. India want to be a sport-forward nation, if they’re not engaging half the population they’re not going to get there. But we’ve seen so many young girls, and boys, get inspired by this competition.”
Whether you’re in Mumbai, Jo’burg or anywhere else, do get in touch as we wait.
Roads to the final
Bends, twists and dead-ends for both teams on their way to today:
India lost three games, to England, Australia and, crucially, South Africa. Losing matches they should have won.
South Africa collapsed like a Yorkshire pudding to England and then Australia, before finding their mojo in Guwahati.
x
“Good morning Tanya.” Hello there Krishnamoorthy!
“India has a record of winning all the matches and blowing up in a crucial match. That should have been the Semifinals. But, this Indian team proved they are different. The South African team carry the tag of being the chokers. These are the narratives that accompany their male counterpart, not these lionesses. Heart says India. Head says India.
“Am not leaving this OBO for a minute, come what may!”
Nasser Hussain “This place is going to be jam-packed. 30,000 people. If they win today, that sleeping giant will be awake and very hard to stop.”
And it is raining again.
Delay
Bathetic rain. A 30 minute delay as they mop up.
And a couple of post-mortems.
First Australia:
Then England:
Raf’s preview of today’s big match.
South Africa’s captain: Laura Wolvaardt
And some soft snow calm from Laura Wolvaardt.
“Mandla [Mashimbyi, South Africa head coach] normally does the really inspirational stuff, the ‘you’re carrying your country’ type of thing. And then I think I’d just come with a little ‘stay calm, girls’ at the end. There’s going to be a lot of noise, a lot happening, a lot of maybe different routines than you’re used to in a normal game. But at the end of the day, we’re going to have to do the basics for longer throughout the game, and hold the nerve for longer. I think just holding on and staying calm is going to go a long way tomorrow.”
“I’m trying not to think too far ahead; just really sort of slow it down. I think the first time you’re in those finals, it feels like a really big, fast-paced event. We’re going to need to slow down and take a big breath, and hope we’re able to do that as a group.”
India’s captain: Harmanpreet Kaur
Harmanpreet, whose face tells a thousand, ten thousand, stories, wept as India turned over Australia. She was more composed on Saturday night.
“I think the most important thing is that we have to enjoy this because there is nothing bigger than this in our life as a cricketer and as a captain. So our focus is to enjoy this moment and keep taking small targets which we have to achieve as a team rather than thinking bigger targets because you can achieve bigger targets if you achieve the small targets.”
“As a player, these moments are very important. To beat a team like Australia, which is a big team and has always done well on the world stage. It’s not an easy thing to perform and be mentally strong in front of them. But I think overcoming that hurdle was something very special to all of us. I always tell my team that you don’t need to control your emotions. If you feel like crying, cry. At the same time, just keep enjoying. I think there is no bigger achievement or thing for us. Tomorrow is a special day and we will go with the same mindset.”
Preamble
Are you ready for a new chapter? A new name on an old trophy?
A sell-out crowd is waiting at Navi Mumbai for these two sides, who turned over the old order in their semi-finals. Harmanpreet Kaur’s generational India play Laura Wolvaardt’s under-the-radar South Africa, with England and Australia watching from their sofas. Two totemic captains, two sides chock-a-block with talent.
This feels like a game changer. Stay with us as we count every over.
