World T20 Qualifier kicks off on Saturday

Saturday sees the start of the Women's World T20 Qualifier (WWT20Q) Event being held this year in Bangkok in Thailand.

Eight teams are looking not only to win the tournament, but for the two teams that make the final on Saturday 5th December there is also a place in the Women's World T20 tournament itself in India in March 2016, where they can test themselves against the eight leading nations in women's international cricket.

The eight teams taking part in the WWT20Q are split into two groups

Group A - Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea, Scotland and Thailand

Group B - China, Ireland, Netherlands, Zimbabwe

The teams in each group play each other once and the winner of Group A takes on the runner-up in Group B in the first semi-final; and the winner of Group B takes on the runner-up in Group A in the second semi-final (played on 3rd December).

On form you would expect Bangladesh to win Group A and Ireland Group B. Both have had far more experience against the top cricket-playing nations, with Ireland recently running T20 World Champions close in three T20 games. Both teams played in the last T20 World Cup, with Bangladesh picking up a win over Sri Lanka in their group game and beating Ireland in the 9th/10th place play-off.

It will be tight to see who those two play in the semi-finals, but it could well be Scotland who take the runners-up spot in Group A and Zimbabwe the same in Group B.

The warm-up games have all been quite low-scoring affairs, so if one batsmen can come to terms with the apparently sticky tracks at the Asian Institute of Technology Ground and the Thailand Cricket Club, where all the games are being played, then they could lead their side to victory. On the bowling front it looks like the spinners will be playing the key role.

WCB will bring you all the scores on twitter (@womenscricblog - click on the link at the top of the right margin to follow us) as they happen, plus scorecards and match reports. If we can find a link to online live play or highlights we will, of course, share that with you too. We also have Ireland skipper, Isobel Joyce, blogging for us from Thailand, so keep an eye out for her blogs over the next week.

MD
26/XI/15