ICC Women's World Cup 2009 - Features
ICC Women's World Cup - 'Ranking' the teams
Sunday, March 29, 2009 5:41:39 AM
And so England's women return home triumphantly from Australia with the ICC Women’s World Cup for the first time since 1993, having beaten New Zealand by four wickets in the final at the North Sydney Oval.
Looking at the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings it is easy to see why they emerged as champions. They ended the competition with their top four batsmen all ranked in the world's top 11, headed by Claire Taylor – who has now spent a total of 111 matches at the top of the batting tree – a total only surpassed by the two Australians Karen Rolton (197) and Belinda Clark (160).
There are an incredible six England bowlers in the top fifteen of the bowling Ratings too. Isa Guha may have slipped from her pre-tournament top spot, but the strength in depth is there for all to see with Holly Colvin, Nicky Shaw and Laura Marsh all ending the final at their highest-ever Ratings.
Another way of examining the relative strengths of the teams participating in the competition is to have a look at the total Rating points for each of them. We can then divide it up further to examine their relative batting and bowling prowess. So here are the total batting Rating points for each team – averaged over their matches in the competition:
|
Team
|
Ave total
|
| England | 4611 |
| Australia | 4597 |
| New Zealand | 4408 |
| India | 3564 |
| Sri Lanka | 2939 |
| South Africa | 2656 |
| West Indies | 2363 |
| Pakistan | 1962 |
So – England had a narrow lead over the chasing Kiwis and Aussies with India further behind. The bottom four are pretty much as expected.
Here is the bowling table:
|
Team
|
Ave total
|
| Australia | 3396 |
| England | 3242 |
| New Zealand | 3003 |
| India | 2599 |
| South Africa | 2542 |
| Sri Lanka | 2446 |
| Pakistan | 2100 |
| West Indies | 2036 |
This time Australia have a narrow lead, helped by Shelley Nitschke and Lisa Sthalekar having successful tournaments with the ball. Again, it is the “big four” leading the way.
And here is the overall table:
|
Team
|
Ave total
|
| England | 7853 |
| Australia | 7804 |
| New Zealand | 7600 |
| India | 6163 |
| Sri Lanka | 5385 |
| South Africa | 5198 |
| West Indies | 4398 |
| Pakistan | 4062 |
Not much to choose between the top three sides, with England just shading it from the Aussies and New Zealand just behind them. These figures probably go to show that there really isn’t a huge amount to choose between the top few sides in the world. Australia did beat England in the tournament – albeit once England’s place in the final was assured – but it suggests that the hosts somewhat underachieved in the tournament as a whole given the quality of their players. On the flip side, India punched above their weight by twice defeating the Australians to pick up third place.