The 1988 Shell Bicentennial Women's 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 str ...

tournament played in Australia from 29 November to 18 December 1988. Hosted by Australia for the first time, as part of the Bicentenary celebrations, it was the fourth 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 ...

, and came six years after the preceding

1982 World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy, who defeated West Germany 3–1 i ...

in New Zealand. The tournament was organised by 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), with matches played over 60 overs. Australia won the tournament for a third consecutive time, defeating

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 ...

in the final by eight wickets.

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 ...

defeated

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in the third-place playoff, while 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 ...

, the only other team at the tournament, placed fifth and last after failing to win a single match. Both Ireland and the Netherlands were making their tournament debuts.

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 ...

had been invited to compete, as they had at the previous two tournaments, but were forced to withdraw after failing to secure enough money from sponsors. Two Australians, Lindsay Reeler and Lyn Fullston, led the tournament in runs and wickets, respectively. The player of the series was English all-rounder Carole Hodges, who placed third for runs scored and second for wickets taken. She received a

Waterford Crystal Waterford Crystal is a manufacturer of lead glass or "crystal", especially in cut glass, named after the city of Waterford, Ireland. In January 2009, the main Waterford Crystal manufacturing base on the edge of Waterford was closed due to the ...

trophy valued at A$4,000, donated by an Irish firm, R&A Bailey.

Squads

* Note: New Zealand's Nancy Williams dislocated her shoulder in one of the opening match, and was replaced by

Catherine Campbell Catherine Anne Campbell (born 20 July 1963) is a New Zealand former cricketer who played as a right-arm off break bowler. She appeared in 9 Test matches and 85 One Day Internationals for New Zealand between 1988 and 2000. She stood in as capta ...

in the squad.

Venues

Warm-up matches

At least five warm-up matches were played against Australian state and invitational teams, which were interspersed throughout 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 an ...

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

1st Match

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2nd Match

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3rd Match

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4th Match

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5th Match

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6th Match

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7th Match

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8th Match

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9th Match

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10th Match

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11th Match

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12th Match

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13th Match

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14th Match

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15th Match

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16th Match

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17th Match

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18th Match

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19th Match

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20th Match

Finals

Third place play-off

Final

The final, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, was broadcast live on radio and on ABC Television. It was attended by around 3,000 people, although the ground had a capacity at the time of over 90,000.

Janette Brittin Janette Ann Brittin (4 July 1959 – 11 September 2017) was an English cricketer who played as a right-handed batter and right-arm off break bowler. She appeared in 27 Tests and 63 ODIs for England between 1979 and 1998. She played domestic ...

, who played for England in the match, later described the venue as having "wall-to-wall seating with no one sitting in them", making it "a very large and a very lonely place".Nishi Narayanan (8 March 2009)
"Like watching paint dry"
– ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 29 August 2015. No women's cricket had been played there since 1949.

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
CricketArchive

Most wickets

The top five wicket takers are listed in this table, ranked by wickets taken and then by bowling average. Source
CricketArchive

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:World Cup 1988 1988 in women's cricket

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

1988 in Australian cricket World Cup 1988 November 1988 sports events in Australia December 1988 sports events in Australia Australian bicentennial commemorations