#3 At Pretoria- April 1, 2005
The 23rd match of the 2005 edition of the Women’s World Cup saw one of the most comprehensive Indian victories over West Indies in the history of Women’s World Cup. Winning the toss, Indian captain Mithali Raj decided to bowl first. Jhulan Goswami and Neetu David then ran through the Windies batting order with spells of 4/16 and 3/11 respectively to bowl them out for 135 runs in 47.4 overs.
The Indian batters, on the other hand, made the chase look like a cake walk as they romped towards the target with 102 balls and eight wickets remaining. It was again Anju Jain, who turned out to be Windies’ tormentor as she played an exceptional innings of 68*(92).
Not only that, she stitched an opening stand of 107 runs with Jaya Sharma who was unfortunate to fall three runs short of a well-deserved 50. Nevertheless, India won the match comfortably by eight wickets in an edition in which they would later march into the final. Jhulan Goswami was adjudged the ‘Player of the match’ for her outstanding bowling spell of 4/16.
