Cricket: England’s thrilling World Cup win

This Sunday saw the climax of the Women’s World Cup in cricket, said Mike Atherton in The Times. And it was “one of the best Lord’s finals I’ve ever seen”. England edged India, bowling them out with just eight balls to spare. It was a “thrilling, almost unbelievable finish”: with ten overs to go, India appeared completely in control; but as the pressure mounted, they collapsed, losing their last seven wickets for a measly 28 runs. This isn’t England’s first World Cup triumph, however – they’ve won it three times before. India, by contrast, are still awaiting their first victory, and were “devastated” to lose. Yet both teams can be “immensely proud” of their performance.

Anya Shrubsole was the player who “cracked” India, said Vithushan Ehantharajah in The Guardian. It was the “performance of a lifetime”. The 25-year-old pace bowler arrived at this tournament short of match practice, but she peaked at exactly the right time: in a “remarkable spell”, she took six wickets for just 46 runs, the best bowling figures in any Women’s World Cup final. England have improved dramatically over the past year, said Stephan Shemilt on BBC Sport online. And it’s their coach, Mark Robinson, who deserves much of the credit. Last year, he stunned the side by axing their captain, Charlotte Edwards – one of the greatest female players in history. That proved to be a master stroke. For all Edwards’ ability, her “dominant presence could be stifling”, and she was too dependent on a handful of players; but since her sacking, a number of talented cricketers – among them Tammy Beaumont and Lauren Winfield – have managed to establish themselves in the team. This tournament showed just how much the women’s game has changed, said Jonathan Liew in The Daily Telegraph. At the first World Cup, in 1973, players paid for their own kits and travel; they had to put up their own promotional posters and, in the case of Rachael Heyhoe-flint, “wrote up the newspaper reports”. Even at the 1993 tournament, the players were still banned from the Lord’s Pavilion. On Sunday, however, that ground was packed to the rafters with an unusually vocal crowd, made up equally of male and female spectators, while as many as 100 million people tuned in on television. But there’s still a “long way” to go, said Elizabeth Ammon in The Times. Since 2014, England’s women players have had professional contracts, yet their salaries are a fraction of “what men earn”: their captain, Heather Knight, makes about £60,000 a year, whereas the top men make “something near seven figures”. But more and more girls and women are playing cricket, and standards only keep rising. The World Cup was proof of that: it felt like “a breakthrough moment for the women’s game”.