Welcome to the big time, Sri Lanka. Today’s magnificent 138-run thrashing of India earned them a spot in the Super Sixes and renewed respect from around the world. By following up their one-wicket win over England in the opening game, they proved it was no fluke and that on their day, they can beat the very best.
This was a polished performance. India were outplayed in all departments. At times they didn’t look as if they knew where to bowl, how to field, or how to pierce the field. They looked like startled baby rabbits caught in the headlights of an articulated truck. They weren’t just beaten, they were mown down by the determined, driven and organised Sri Lankan outfit.
They can now look forward to matches against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Play as well as this and they could still have a major role to play in this World Cup, by taking points of rivals even if it is hard to see them making the final – New Zealand and Australia should be too strong for them but the game with South Africa will be one to watch out for.
The Momentum Protea Queens, as Cricket South Africa have appointed them, were barely tested today in beating Pakistan, whose dire score of 81 was their second sub-100 total of the tournament. Marizanne Kapp became the fourth woman to register a maiden century in this World Cup, following Thirush Kamini, Harmanpreet Kaur and Sophie Devine. Not many predicted that the seventh/eighth place play-off would be between hosts India and Pakistan, but that is what we have. It is the match that nobody really wanted to happen, given the furore surrounding Pakistan’s potential presence in Mumbai before the tournament got underway.
India are just the second side, after South Africa in 2000, to fail to finish the tournament they are hosting in the top four. I would like to say they will bounce back, but I am not convinced. With the West Indies and Sri Lanka always improving, who is to say that come 2017, that India won’t have slipped even further behind the rest?
The Trans-Tasman clash saw another century from Suzie Bates but a convincing win for Australia – the much more catchy Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars, to give them their full moniker. Bates has now hit 6 scores of more than 50 in seven innings but with centurion Meg Lanning finally showing the sort of form that I expected her to from the start of the tournament, putting on 180 with Jess Cameron as Australia made a target of 228 look relatively easy.
England finished on top of the group after beating the West Indies by six wickets. A wonderful new ball burst from Anya Shrubsole and Katherine Brunt reduced the West Indies to 29 for six and there was no way back. A clinical performance from England resulted in them chasing down the target with 15 overs in hand.
That left a nervous wait for the West Indies, but once Sri Lanka had piled up a national record of 282 with four players hitting half-centuries, and taken early wickets, India were never going to win, let alone reach the 251 they needed to get through.