From Harmanpreet Kaur’s 171* to Anya Shrubsole breaking hearts, we look back fondly at the past three tournaments
Vishal Dikshit26-Sep-2025Alyssa Healy bosses the 2022 knockoutsThe Australians are known to step up on the big stage, against the best opponents, and in the knockouts. Alyssa Healy did it all at once and on her own in the 2022 edition to send Australia to their seventh ODI World Cup.Batting first in the semi-final against West Indies, Healy raced to a 91-ball century after being given a life early, but then sped from 50 to 100 in just 28 balls for her maiden World Cup hundred to finish on 129 off 107, studded with 17 fours and a six that set up their 157-run victory.Four days later, she hit new highs – again after being given a life – with a commanding 170 against England to take home the Player of the Match and Series awards along with the main trophy. Her magnificent knock helped her finish the tournament with 509 runs, the most in a World Cup edition.”It was an amazing 50-over World Cup for the Australian women’s team, but for me personally the innings in the final was pretty special,” Healy later told ESPNcricinfo. “To contribute and get them over the line in a big match was obviously pretty special for our group.”The 171* Harmonster in the 2017 semi-final0:45
Harmanpreet on her 171*: ‘A lot of things changed in women’s cricket’
If there was one recent World Cup that gave women’s cricket lift off, it was in 2017, and if one had to pick a knock from that tournament that did the same, it would be Harmanpreet Kaur’s epic 171* off 115, that too in a rain-curtailed match.Despite a strained shoulder, Harmanpreet knocked the daylights out of the Australia attack in unexpected and unprecedented fashion, relentlessly belting 20 fours and seven sixes. She raced from 50 to 100 in just 26 balls and then from 100 to 150 in just 17 balls. Her barely believable manner of eliminating Australia from the tournament was immediately chronicled in cricket history.”That knock was really special to me and for women’s cricket,” Harmanpreet said last month in Mumbai. “After that knock a lot of things changed personally in my life, and especially in women’s cricket also, because at that time I didn’t really know what had happened because I was totally off social media. But when we came back to India, and even though we lost the World Cup [final], the amount of people who were waiting for us, cheering for us, that was something very special. Still, when I remember that innings I get goosebumps.”Jhulan Goswami’s peach to Meg Lanning in the 2017 semi-final
It’s highly likely that had it not been for Harmanpreet’s jaw-dropping 171*, the world would have celebrated this dismissal a lot more. Australia would have barely recovered from that knock when the experienced Jhulan Goswami bowled an absolute peach to one of the most feared batters in the world. It started on a short of length and angled in from Goswami’s tall release, and as Meg Lanning covered her off stump, the ball straightened and then seamed away just a hint to knock over the top of off stump. Lanning’s walk as soon as the bails went flying and Goswami’s lion-like roars were testament to the worth of the wicket and the magnitude of the occasion.Goswami later revealed she had asked the India coach to drop her from the XI after she went wicketless in the first two games. But Tushar Arothe asked her to lead the bowling attack, and she did it with aplomb.”Meg Lanning is among the best players in the world and she is very strong square of the wicket,” Goswami said later. “Two days before the match I told Mithali [Raj] to bat in a way that I can bowl square of the wicket and then she will give me the feedback. That’s how I prepared. Luckily everything went our way.”Sri Lanka’s first big World Cup triumphA last-ball six. A one-wicket victory. Their first against a big-four side. The most sixes in an innings by a Sri Lanka batter in women’s ODIs. Sri Lanka did the unthinkable in their first match of the 2013 edition, by bringing down the defending champions, England, in a see-saw affair for the ages.England put up a competitive 238 for 8 and saw a 23-year-old Chamari Athapaththu lead Sri Lanka past 100 in the 23rd over to set things up. But Sri Lanka slipped to 157 for 5 with 82 to get from 71. No. 6 Eshani Lokusuriyage then not only chaperoned the lower order and the tail but also struck at 136.58 with three sixes under immense pressure to stretch it to the final over with wickets tumbling. With nine to get from six, Lokusuriyage hammered a six on the second ball but was run-out two balls later with scores level before Dilani Manodara smashed a six to seal a historic win.”The first thing that comes to my mind when you mention the 2013 World Cup was how we rushed the field after the win. I can see it so clearly in my head,” then captain Shashikala Siriwardene recalls. “We were running towards her (Manodara) and she was running to us. It was incredible.”Our lives and our cricket changed with that match. It started with that game. We actually didn’t celebrate massively. We shouted a little bit in the dressing room, and the coach (Harsha de Silva) said a few words. And then we just went to our rooms. But I couldn’t sleep! I was up most of the night remembering all the little things in that match, and the big moments. I was overjoyed. It was only the next day that I got a little sleep. I think that happened to a lot of the others as well.”Anya Shrubsole breaking hearts, again and againFirst South Africa’s and then India’s. Anya Shrubsole broke millions of hearts two game days in a row when she sealed two knockout thrillers to help England lift their fourth World Cup title, in 2017.It came down to the last over in the semi-final against South Africa, when England needed three runs but with only three wickets in hand. After Shabnim Ismail conceded just one run on the first two balls and dismissed Laura Marsh, Shrubsole came down the pitch and hit the winning boundary to leave the South Africa players distraught and in tears.When a nail-biter loaded in the final too, it came down to Shrubsole again, this time with the ball when India were just 11 away from their maiden World Cup triumph, but with only two wickets and two overs left. Shrubsole started her last over with the wicket of Deepti Sharma, and three balls later rattled the stumps to remove Rajeshwari Gayakwad and stamp England’s name on the trophy with her historic six-for, to be named Player of the Match.”I’m a little bit lost for words, if I’m honest,” she said soon after the game. “Just an unbelievable game.”
