After two excellent semi-finals the climax to the tournament provided more fantastic entertainment with the result in doubt to the last ball
It is the women who know how to enthral. After two riveting World Cup semi‑finals elsewhere here was a final that had a capacity crowd nervously glued to their seats one moment, then leaping out of them in delight yet still never knowing which side would prevail until the final ball was bowled. Somehow the men’s games this summer have been disappointingly one-sided by comparison.
This was not the decorous Lord’s of seasons past. The fans were chanting and gasping at every twist and turn. In the final overs each ball provoked raucous cheers from one set of fans or the other. Brilliant run-outs, scrambled singles, desperate dropped catches and then at the end – just as in the semi-final at Bristol – Anya Shrubsole was engulfed by team‑mates, exhausted not so much by the demands of the game but by the tension of a magnificent final. One-day cricket is a wonderful game when the outcome seems all-important.
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