In 2012, lamentably not a single Women’s Test was played. However there were the usual One Day Internationals and Twenty20 internationals which ensured that the women’s game is kept alive throughout the year. Let us look at the highlights and moments of the women’s game in 2012:-
– Australia Women recorded the highest successful run chase in women’s ODI’s when they chased New Zealand Women’s 288/6 by scoring 289/6 in 46.4 overs at Sydney in December. The match aggregate of 577 runs also was a new record, obliterating the 570 in a game between the same teams at Hamilton in 2008-09.
– Bangladesh Women recorded their lowest ever ODI total, when they were bowled out for 60 against South Africa Women at Dhaka in September, a match they lost by 7 wickets.
– Nain Abidi beacme the first woman to score an ODI century for Pakistan, when she scored an unbeaten 101 in 129 balls against Ireland Women at Dublin in August.
– The 58 run partnership between Amita Sharma and Gouher Sultana for India Women against England Women at Taunton in July was the highest tenth wicket partnership in a women’s ODI.
– Australia Women won the traditional Rose Bowl, defeating New Zealand Women 3-1 in a 4-match ODI series, stretching their undefeated run in the tournament to 14 seasons in a row.
– Australia Women won their second successive World T20 title after defeating England Women in the final of the 2012 edition by 4 runs at Colombo (RPS).
Australia Women celebrate after winning the World T20 for the second time in a row, beating England Women in the final (source – heraldsun.com.au)
– India Women won the inaugural Women’s T20 Asia cup at Guangzhou, beating Pakistan Women by 18 runs in the final of the
– Pakistan Women’s 1-run win against India Women in a T20 at Galle in October was the fourth instance of such a result in women’s T20 internationals. Needing just 99 to win, India Women were restricted to 97/8.
– Sri Lanka Women recorded the lowest ever total in a women’s T20 international when they were bowled out for 57 in reply to Bangladesh Women’s 62 (the joint-third lowest total ever) at Guangzhou in October.
– The aggregate of 92 in a World T20 match between Sri Lanka Women and West Indies Women was a new international record – Sri Lanka Women won the rain-curtailed game by 5 runs on the D/L method.
– England Women won a record 14 consecutive T20 internationals, a streak which lasted from October 2011 to September 2012.
– Sarah Taylor of England Women accumulated 616 runs in T20 internationals in 2012, which is a record for the most runs scored by a woman in T20 internationals in a single calendar year.
– Pakistan Women’s Asmavia Iqbal became the first woman to take an international T20 hat-trick, against England Women at Loughborough in September. In October, India Women’s Ekta Bisht became the second woman to record a hat-trick, against Sri Lanka Women at Colombo.
– West Indies Women’s Shemaine Campbelle became the youngest woman to captain a team in T20 internationals against England Women at Arundel in September, at 19 years and 338 days. She broke the record of her own countrywoman Stefanie Taylor, who was 20 years and 261 days when she led against India Women at Basseterre in February.
England Women’s fast bowler Isa Guha called time on a highly successful ten-year international career (source topnews.in)
– England Women’s fast bowler Isa Guha retired from international cricket at the age of 27 in March. She played 8 Tests (29 wickets), 83 ODI’s (101 wickets) and 22 T20I’s (18 wickets) since her debut in 2001. She is one of only two England Women bowlers to have taken more than 100 ODI wickets. Guha’s most memorable performance came in the Bowral Test in 2007-08 when she took a match-winning 9 for 100 to help England retain the Ashes. She was part of the England Women squad that won the World Cup and the World T20 in 2009.
The Cricket Cauldron 