Australia beat England by 71 runs to win record-extending seventh Women's World Cup title
Christchurch(PTI): Australia bossed their way to a record-extending seventh Women's World Cup title with a crushing 71-run win over traditional rivals England, stamping their undisputed dominance in the tournament after a breathtaking hundred from Alyssa Healy in the final here on Sunday.
Playing the innings of her life, Healy put England attack to sword with a sensational 170 off 138 balls that powered Australia to a massive 356 for five.
Defending champions England needed something more than special to pull off the record chase but kept losing wickets throughout the innings which ended at 285 in 43.4 overs.
Natalie Sciver, who scored an unbeaten 148 off 121 balls for her second successive hundred against Australia in the competition, eventually ran out of partners.
Australian pacer Megan Schutt (2/42) bowled a brilliant new ball spell removing last match centurion Danielle Wyat (4) and Tammy Beaumont (27) with her lethal in-swingers before leg-spinner Alana King (3/64) turned the ball on a bating beauty to end with three crucial wickets including that of England skipper Heather Knight (26).
Healy, who was dropped on 41, toyed with the English attack in her mesmerising knock, which is now the highest-ever individual score in a World Cup final across men's and women's cricket.
Adam Gilchrist (149, 2007), Sciver (148 in this game), Ricky Ponting (140, 2003) and Viv Richards (138, 1979) are behind Healy in the elite list.
Healey's opening partner Rachael Haynes (68 off 93) and Beth Mooney (62 off 47) also batted with confidence as Australia put on board the highest team total in a World Cup final in women's cricket and second-highest behind the Australian men's team's effort of 359 for two against India in 2003.
To put Australia's achievement in perspective, it was their sixth win in seven World Cup finals, making Meg Lanning's unit one of the greatest teams of all time. Australia had won their first trophy on points back in 1973.
Though England ended runners-up, it was still a remarkable campaign for the defending champions that came into the final after five wins in a row following defeats in its first three games.
They always had run rate under control in the massive chase but the lack of partnerships cost them the game.
Sciver, who smashed 15 fours and a six in her epic knock, fought till the end alongside number 10 batter Charlotte Dean (21 off 24) but they were left to do too much in the end. The duo shared a 65 run-stand for the ninth wicket to take the game deep.
Earlier, Healy forged a 160-run stand with Haynes before sharing 156-runs with left-handed Mooney who was sent in ahead of skipper Meg Lanning to maintain the left and right combination.
A packed and a neutral crowd at Hagley Oval was in for a treat with Healy showing devastating form en route to her second consecutive hundred in the knock-out stage, having scored 129 against West Indies in the semifinal.
Healy flaunted her 360 range of strokes in a sensational effort, scoring runs at will against a bowling line-up that had no answer to her brilliance.
For the major part of her innings, Healy exposed all three stumps to make room for herself and hit bowlers over the mid-off fielder.
Healy never allowed the number one ODI bowler Sophie Eccelstone (1/71) to settle, using her feet against her and other spinners to hit them straight over the in-field.
She also cut and pulled on her way to a fifth ODI hundred and when she was bored hitting the boundaries over mid-off and cover, she moved across the off-stump to play the scoop shot.
Expecting heavy dew in the evening, defending champions England opted to put Australia in to bat.
Australia, the only unbeaten team in the tournament, came out determined to stamp their authority for one last time in the tournament and they certainly did that with the bat.
England limited the damage the last five overs by taking four wickets.
Pacer Anya Shrubsole (3/46) was the only England bowler that ended with respectable figures.
Sciver, Charlotte Dean and Kate Cross conceded more than 8 runs per over.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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