The 1978 Women's Cricket World Cup was an international

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

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 The ICC Women's Cricket World Cup is the sport's oldest world championship, with the first tournament held in England in 1973. Matches are played as One Day Internationals (ODIs) over 50 overs per team, while there is also another champion ...

, 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 The International Women's Cricket Council was formed in February 1958 by the women's cricket associations of Australia, England, the Netherlands, New Zealand and South Africa to organise international matches between the countries. In 2005 it was ...

(IWCC) providing only limited oversight. Along with

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, which was making its debut, five other teams were originally invited –

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, and the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. The Netherlands and the West Indies, which had both not previously participated, were forced to withdraw due to financial issues.Abhishek Mukherjee (15 January 2014)
"Australia Women lift 1978 World Cup — the tournament which was almost called off"
– CricketCountry. Retrieved 30 August 2015. The four teams that did compete (the lowest number in the tournament's history) played a

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero ...

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.

Squads

Information is only available for players who played at least one match at the tournament.

Venues

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. ---- ---- ---- ----

Group stage

Points table

* Note:

run rate In cricket, the run rate (RR), or runs per over (RPO), is the average number of runs a batting side scores per over. It includes all runs made by the batting side in the innings to that point of the game, both the runs scored by the batsmen and ...

was to be used as a tiebreaker in the case of teams finishing on an equal number of points, rather than

net run rate Net run rate (NRR) is a statistical method used in analysing teamwork and/or performance in cricket. It is the most commonly used method of ranking teams with equal points in limited overs league competitions, similar to goal difference in foo ...

(as is now common).

Matches

New Zealand vs Australia

India vs England

New Zealand vs India

India vs Australia

New Zealand vs England

England vs Australia

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. England's

Megan Lear Megan Amy Lear (born 31 August 1951) is an English former cricketer who played as a right-handed batter. She appeared in 9 Test matches and 16 One Day Internationals for England between 1976 and 1985, and coached England during the 1997 World ...

later recounted that the "most memorable part of hetournament was playing in front of crowds of 40,000 plus".(5 March 2009)
"'Our laundry laid out to dry on the rocks'"
– ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 30 August 2015.

Statistics

Most runs

The top five runscorers are included in this table, ranked by runs scored and then by

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

. Source
Cricinfo

Most wickets

The top five wicket takers are listed in this table, ranked by wickets taken and then by

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

. Source
Cricinfo

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:World Cup 1978 in women's cricket 1978 1978 in Indian cricket World Cup 1978 January 1978 sports events in Asia