1978 Women's Cricket World Cup
The 1978 Women's World Cup was an international cricket tournament played in India from 1 to 13 January 1978. Hosted by India for the first time, it was the second edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup, and came over four years after the inaugural 1973 World Cup in England.
It was originally proposed that South Africa host the World Cup, but this was abandoned to conform with the sporting boycott of the country. The Women's Cricket Association of India (WCAI) then made a successful bid, and served as the primary organiser, with the International Women's Cricket Council (IWCC) providing only limited oversight.[1] Along with India, which was making its debut, five other teams were originally invited – Australia, England, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the West Indies. The Netherlands and the West Indies had never before participated, but were both forced to withdraw due to financial issues.[2] The four teams that did compete (the lowest number in the tournament's history) played a round-robin tournament of three matches each, with Australia going undefeated to claim its first title. Australia's captain, Margaret Jennings, led the tournament in runs, while her teammate, Sharyn Hill, led the tournament in wickets.[3][4]
Squads
Venues
Four venues hosted matches at the 1978 Women's World Cup:
Warm-up matches
At least five warm-up matches were played against various local Indian teams, all but one of which came before the tournament.[9]
Warm-up matches
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East Zone |
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West Bengal WCA President's XI |
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Indian Universities |
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West Bengal WCA President's XI |
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East Zone |
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Group stage
Points table
- Note: run rate was to be used as a tiebreaker in the case of teams finishing on an equal number of points, rather than net run rate (as is now common).[10]
Matches
- Australia won the toss and elected to bat.
- England won the toss and elected to bowl.
- India won the toss and elected to bat.
- England won the toss and elected to bowl.
- India won the toss and elected to bowl.
Both Australia and England went into the last match of the tournament undefeated, which meant it functioned as a de facto final, akin to the Uruguay v Brazil match at the 1950 Football World Cup.[2] England's Megan Lear later recounted that the "most memorable part of [the] tournament was playing in front of crowds of 40,000 plus".[11]
- Australia won the toss and elected to bowl.
Statistics
Most runs
The top five runscorers are included in this table, ranked by runs scored and then by batting average.
Source: CricketArchive
Most wickets
The top five wickettakers are listed in this table, ranked by wickets taken and then by bowling average.
Source: CricketArchive
References
Women's international cricket tours of India |
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| Test and LOI tours | | Australia | |
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| Bangladesh | |
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| England |
- 1995-96
- 2001-02
- 2005-06
- 2009-10
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| New Zealand |
- 1984-85
- 2001-02
- 2003-04
- 2015
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| South Africa | |
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| Sri Lanka | |
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| West Indies | |
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| Tournaments hosted | | Multiple teams | |
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| Other tours | | Australian | |
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| English | |
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| New Zealand | |
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| Sri Lankan | |
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