Important events
Toss at 11am GMT – starts at 11:30pm
If the weather behaves itself.
The cleanup begins
We have not lost any surplus in Navi Mumbai yet. Although I’m counting down the remaining hours of daylight here in Manchester – where the sky is currently a perfect cornflower blue, complementing the burnished golden leaves and burnt orange crab apples.
And thanks for letting me know about Navi Mumbai. A selection of emails.
Arul Kanhere: “Navi (or New) is an extension added to the old city of Mumbai. As people gathered in the metropolis for work and employment, the city continued to grow and is now part of the wider metropolitan region. It is called the MMRDA, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Area.”
Mittu Choudhary: “NAVI Mumbai too is a sister city – which emerged in the 80s and 90s to support Bombay’s growing population. Now it has grown into its own city and is considered one of the best cities to live in India.”
And Krishnanmoorthy: “Bombay grew along its two local train routes. Central and Western. At some point, when the exploding population (Bombay has more people than the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria combined) could no longer be accommodated, a satellite city emerged, away from both the train routes and towards Pune. Lack of creative thinking gave it a common name New Bombay, which was then changed to Navi Mumbai, bowing to linguistic pressure. The local joke goes this way: Pune is closer to Navi Mumbai than Munbai.”
The rain is decreasing.
“This reading of Wisden Monthly reminded me of when I was a cricket-obsessed teenager looking for anything cricket could get my hands on,” writes Mittu Choudhary.
“This was sometime in 2004 when I came across this Wisden Cricket Asia (maybe the Asia edition of the WCM) at the newsstand and mobilized all my resources to get my copy a month later. Only to see in my second copy a letter from the editor that had stopped printing and I was holding the last copy in my hands Wisden Asia Cricket :(. I’m also on my way to the stadium now and it’s absolutely raining – it doesn’t look good.”
A heartbreaking story Mittu!
I’m going to quickly make a cup of coffee, back soon.
And it’s raining, soaking the subfloort in Navi Mumbai. And the forecast for tomorrow is even worse.
Raf confirms. “If they can’t get to the minimum overs today (20 per side), they will pick up where they left off tomorrow. It would be the same number of overs as decided by the umpires today – they wouldn’t reduce it to a full match.”
A question. Is Navi Mumbai considered a suburb of Mumbai? Is it a Salford/Manchester thing?
And hello Chris Kibathi! ‘We’re following from Nairobi, Tanya.
“It is clear that we are advocating for Africa, as we have always done since Lance Klusener’s exploits in London ’99 ended in heartbreak.”
What fond memories of that great World Cup, that was the first one I worked on as part of the team Wisden Cricket Monthly under Tim de Lisle, who will take over for today’s second innings, should it ever happen. I wasn’t in Edgbaston That Hermit but was at the ‘You just dropped the World Cup buddy’ game – or at least I think so. I can’t quite capture it through the mists of time.
A message falls. “I’m emailing from Manila, Philippines,” writes Jeremy Flint. “While we wait, perhaps you can explain the contingencies for using the day off (i.e. is that only possible if we don’t reach the minimum of 20 above for a DLS game or is there any special criteria for the final?)”
Browse my metaphorical book about game conditions… I think we get an extra two hours today to complete the game, and we won’t start losing overs until the start is two hours late. The match must have a minimum of 20 overs per team.
But… and thanks to the BBC for this, if a side bats 50 overs but fewer than 20 overs are bowled out, play will resume from the same point tomorrow.
While we wait for news on the humidity in Mumbai, read more about your south african history with this Great book by Firdose Moonda.
More rain
Ian Ward, Isa Guha and Nasser Hussain shelter under huge umbrellas as they chew the fat.
Guha speaks beautifully about the occasion.
“Just like in 2017 when people said Lord’s could never sell out for a women’s final, like in 2020 when 80,000 people came to the MCG and now today [where people were queing for non-existent tickets on Saturday]I’m just so happy for the girls.
“On days like today I always think of Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, the way she was able to campaign to make that first World Cup possible in 1973. All those women who took to the streets and sold tickets to try to get people to come and watch to hear that women’s cricket wasn’t good enough, not strong enough and not skilful enough. This defies all that.
“We have seen in this tournament that the skill levels have risen enormously, the levels of the competition, to have a new name on the trophy. Alyssa Healy spoke very well about the legacy of Indian cricket. We saw what the 1983 Men’s World Cup victory did, [the women]That’s absolutely possible today. India wants to be a sports-oriented nation; if they don’t involve half the population, they won’t get there. But we have seen so many young girls and boys inspired by this competition.”
Whether you are in Mumbai, Johannesburg or elsewhere, contact us while we wait.
Roads to the final
Bends, twists and dead ends for both teams heading into today:
India lost three matches, to England, Australia and, crucially, South Africa. Losing games that they should have won.
South Africa collapsed like a Yorkshire pudding to England and then to Australia, before finding their mojo in Guwahati.
X
“Good morning Tanja.” Hello there Krishnamoorthy!
“India has a reputation for winning all the games and blowing up in a crucial match. That should have been the semi-finals. But this Indian team has proven that they are different. The South African team carries the tag of the chokers. These are the stories that accompany their male counterpart, not these lionesses. Heart says India. Head says India.”
“I won’t leave this OBO for a minute, no matter what!”
Nasser Hussein “It will be packed here. 30,000 people. If they win today, that sleeping giant will be awake and very difficult to stop.”
And it’s raining again.
Delay
Bathtic rain. A 30 minute delay while they clean up.
And a few post-mortems.
First Australia:
Then England:
Raf’s sneak peek of today’s big match.
Captain of the South Africans: Laura Wolfards
And some soft snow rest from Laura Wovaardt.
“Mandla [Mashimbyi, South Africa head coach] normally does the really inspiring things, the ‘you carry your country’ kind. And then I guess I’d just come up with a little “keep calm, girls” at the end. There will be a lot of noise, a lot going on, there may be a lot of different routines than you are used to in a normal game. But in the end, we will have to carry out the basic principles longer throughout the game and hold our nerve for longer. I think if you hang in there and stay calm you will go a long way tomorrow.”
“I’m trying not to think too far ahead; I just have to slow it down a little bit. I think the first time you’re in those finals, it feels like a really big, fast event. We’re going to have to slow down and take a deep breath, and I hope we can do that as a group.”
The Indian Captain: Harmanpreet Kaur
Harmanpreet, whose face tells a thousand, ten thousand stories, wept when India turned Australia. Saturday night she was more composed.
“I think the most important thing is that we have to enjoy this because there is nothing bigger than this in our lives as a cricketer and as a captain. So our focus is to enjoy this moment and keep taking small goals that we have to achieve as a team rather than coming up with bigger goals because you can achieve bigger goals if you achieve the small goals.”
“As a player, these moments are very important. To beat a team like Australia, who are a big team and have always done well on the world stage. It’s not easy to perform in front of them and be mentally strong. But I think overcoming that hurdle was something very special for all of us. I always tell my team that you don’t have to control your emotions. If you feel like crying, then cry. At the same time, just keep enjoying yourself. I don’t think there is a bigger achievement or thing for us. Tomorrow is a special day and we will continue with the same mentality.”
Preamble
Are you ready for a new chapter? A new name on an old trophy?
A sold-out crowd awaits in Navi Mumbai for these two sides, who have reversed the old order in their semi-finals. Harmanpreet Kaur’s generational India plays Laura Wolvaardt’s under-the-radar South Africa – England and Australia, watching from their sofas. Two totemic captains, two sides packed with talent.
This feels like a game changer. Stay with us as we count every time.
#India #South #Africa #Womens #Cricket #World #Cup #final #live