Heading to the World Cup

I have just finished typing all the World Cup games into the WCB Women's Cricket Fixtures calendar [you will find them here if you need them], which got me thinking about how England might fare and how the tournament, as a whole, might pan out. It all starts in 8 weeks........and about 4 weeks later Australia will be World Champions for the eighth time.

Is it really that clear cut? Is it really that much of a foregone conclusion? Should I be putting my life-savings on Australia to win the 13th Edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup? Well, probably not.

Cricket, as they say, is a funny game, and the tournament is being played in the sub-continent, on pitches that should suit spin bowlers, and batters that are nimble of foot and agile in mind. It would not surprise me if Sri Lanka, Pakistan or Bangladesh cause a few upsets, but they are unlikely to win the tournament. Given that all the eight teams play each other, and then the top four go into the semi-finals, this is a tournament about consistency. You need to win more games than you lose. In fact in the last edition West Indies qualified for the semi-finals with a 3-3 record, having had one game called off. This time they have not even made the competition. 

Consistency should reward the "better teams". So you would expect Australia, India and England to win more games than they lose. I think the last slot might just go to Pakistan, who are playing all their games at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, in Sri Lanka, so do not have the travel issues that all the other teams face, and will be playing every game on the same pitch. This is a huge advantage. Some might say so big that it is unfair?

So from the group stage it becomes a simple knockout tournament, where the best team on the day will win. In T20 cricket this can often be on the performance of one individual, but that is less likely in 50 over cricket, although it can happen - Chamari Athapaththu, Harmanpreet Kaur and Anya Shrubsole spring to mind. One day cricket tends to be much more of a team performance and this favours Australia and India, so, provided they avoid each other in the semi-final, these would be my two teams in the final.

And so to the final. India playing in front of 40,000 screaming Indians in the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangaluru. The pressure on them will be enormous. It is not something they have dealt with well in the past, and despite the pressures of playing in front of large crowds in the WPL, it might just prove too much for them again. 

So what of England? They are a "new team", under a new coach and a new captain. The problem is that they are not really a "new team" at all. Unfortunately this summer has not seen the blooding of some new players such as Ella MacCaughan, Jodi Grewcock, Charis Pavely or Rhianna Southby. The West Indies series was a golden opportunity to experiment, but it just produced false hope in some of the existing players, which has subsequently been crushed, by not only losing both the T20 and the ODI series to India, but by looking second best in almost every facet of the game. With a genuinely "new team" at the World Cup England might be forgiven for not making the Final. The fact that they might struggle to even make it to the semi-finals with a squad that looks so similar to the one that lost 16-0 to Australia in The Ashes seems an opportunity missed.

But then who knows? England might just go and win the whole thing. I wouldn't be putting my house on that though.

Martin Davies
23/VII/25

Women's U19 T20 World Cup - Format and Warm Up Games

Welcome to our coverage of the inaugural Women's U19 T20 World Cup. First of all let's have a look at the format of the competition. Initially the sixteen qualifying teams are divided into four groups.

Group A - Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, USA Group B - England, Pakistan, Rwanda, Zimbabwe Group C - Indonesia, Ireland, New Zealand, West Indies Group D - India, Scotland, South Africa, UAE Each team will play two warm-up games (see below). In the Group Stage they will play each team in their group once. The top three teams in each group will then enter the Super 6s Leagues. Super 6 League 1 - A1, A2, A3, D1, D2, D3 Super 6 League 2 - B1, B2, B3, C1, C2, C3

In the Super 6 Leagues teams will only play two more games (not three). The top two sides from the Super 6s Leagues go on to the semi-finals, and then the winners to the final.

Warm-up games are on Monday and Wednesday this week and the competition proper starts on Saturday 14th January 2023. Here are the warm-up games.

Monday 9th January 2023

Scotland v USA Ireland v Pakistan Indonesia v Zimbabwe India v Australia UAE v Sri Lanka New Zealand v Rwanda West Indies v England South Africa v Bangladesh

Wednesday 11th January 2023

Bangladesh v India England v Indonesia Rwanda v Ireland South Africa v Australia Zimbabwe v West Indies Pakistan v New Zealand Sri Lanka v Scotland

We will try and keep you up-to-date with all the scores, results, performances and standings.

Martin Davies 08/I/23

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

Isobel Joyce will blog for WCB on Ireland in WWT20 Qualifier

The build-up to the 2016 Women's World T20 Cup in India has already started for the eight teams who are attempting to claim the last two spots in the WT20 competition in India next March.

Bangladesh, who qualified as hosts for the 2013 World T20 Cup, and Ireland, who won their place at the 2013 tournament by finishing third in the qualifying tournament held in Ireland (behind Sri Lanka and Pakistan, who also qualified) are the two favourites to emerge from the eight teams in the 2015 Qualifying Tournament, being played in Thailand at the end of November. Just the two teams that make the final of the Qualifying Tournament will join Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, when the main tournament kicks off on 11th March 2016.

The format for the Qualifying Tournament is two groups of four playing each other once. The top two from each group then go into the semi-finals and the winners of those games not only qualify for the final, but have a place assured at the main competition.

The groups are:-
Group A - Bangladesh, Thailand, Scotland and Papua New GuineaGroup B - Ireland, Netherlands, China and Zimbabwe.

WCB will be following the whole Qualifying Tournament and we will have our own exclusive insider - captain of Ireland Isobel Joyce. She will be blogging for WCB in both the build-up to the tournament and as the tournament progresses, starting at the end of this month as Ireland head to Spain for a pre-tournament camp. So follow WCB on twitter (@womenscricblog) and here on the Blog for all the news on the ICC Women's World T20 Qualifier.

The 20 games will be played at the Thailand Cricket Ground (TCG) and the Asian Institute of Technology Ground in Bangkok, Thailand. These are the fixtures:-

Sat 28th November 
Thailand v Bangladesh, TCG (1000-1245);
Ireland v Netherlands, AIT (1000-1245);
PNG v Scotland, TCG (1345-1630);
China v Zimbabwe, AIT (1345-1630)

Sun 29th November 
China v Ireland, TCG (1000-1245);
Scotland v Bangladesh, AIT (1000-1245);
Zimbabwe v Netherlands, TCG (1345-1630);
Thailand v PNG, AIT (1345-1630)

Tues 1st December 
Thailand v Scotland, TCG (1000-1245);
Bangladesh v PNG, AIT (1000-1245);
Zimbabwe v Ireland, TCG (1345-1630);
Netherlands, China, AIT (1345-1630)

Thurs 3rd December 
Trophy semi-final 1 (A1 v B2) TCG (1000-1245);
Shield semi-final 1 (A3 v B4), AIT (1000-1245);
Trophy semi-final 2 (B1 v A2), TCG (1345-1630);
Shield semi-final 2 (B3 v A4), AIT (1345-1630)

Sat 5th December
Trophy third/fourth place play-off, TCG (1000-1245);
Shield third/fourth place play-off, AIT (1000-1245);
Trophy final, TCG (1345-1630);
Shield final, AIT (1345-1630)

MD
21/X/15

Closest ever WT20 on the cards

For the first time there will be ten teams rather than eight in the Women's World T20 Cup which starts in Bangladesh on 23rd March, and it could be the closest fought WT20 ever.

The teams are split into two groups of five - groups A & B - who will all play each other once. The winner of Group A will play the second in Group B in the first semi-final and the winner of Group B will play the runner-up in Group A in the other semi-final. It is going to be a dog eat dog affair and I can see every team losing at least one game and the dreaded Net Run Rate coming into play to see who makes those vital semi-finals.

Group A has Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa.
Australia will be the favourites to win the group. They are after all the holders and beat England 2-1 in their latest T20 series. But they did lose all three of the T20 games in England last season and they have lost three of their last five T20 games to New Zealand. They have lost the services of their inspirational captain Lisa Sthalekar since the last World Cup, and Meg Lanning has only just taken on the role from Jodie Fields. They do have a habit of winning the games that matter, but they will be pushed all the way by New Zealand and will get no easy ride from South Africa.
New Zealand too are a team in transition. Coach Katrina Keenan resigned in January and Warren Lees has taken over as "interim coach". He has brought a few new faces into the White Ferns' squad who are currently performing well against the West Indies. They also have the buffer of having Suzie Bates and Sara McGlashan in their midst, both of whom have been in fine form with the bat of late. The two of them are quite capable of taking a game away from any team they are playing, but can they do it game after game. It is a big ask.
And talking of big asks, it will be tough for South Africa to string together four good results on the bounce, particularly when two of those games will be against Australia and New Zealand. They have never beaten either team in a T20. On their day they can be very good with the ball, but they can struggle to post a competitive score with the bat. But if they can get away to a good start in their first match against Pakistan, which they will be expecting to win, then their second game against the Aussies could be tighter than people think.
Pakistan are an improving team, but I think they will have to settle for just one or two victories here. Ireland, who play in Division 3 of the English County Championship, are making their first appearance at a T20 World Cup. They fought their way there through the qualifying tournament (finishing third behind Sri Lanka and Pakistan), but recently beat Pakistan in a low-scoring game in Doha, which will boost their confidence when they meet again. As the underdogs they have nothing to fear and can hopefully play with freedom and get some decent results.

Group B has Bangladesh, England, India, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.
With all due respect to Bangladesh I think this looks like a four-way contest for the two spots available in the semis.
England made it to the final two years ago and were favourites to win, having been dominant in the earlier rounds, but they lost by four runs to Australia. But in those intervening two years they have lost five players from the team that played in the that final - Holly Colvin and Arran Brindle have retired, Laura Marsh and Katherine Brunt are injured and Danielle Wyatt has been left out of the squad. It will be a very different looking team that takes on West Indies in a crucial first match in Group B on 24th March. England have in fact lost more T20 matches against the West Indies than they have won (6/5), including three out in the Caribbean last October. England approach T20 in a much more controlled way than do the West Indies, which is perhaps dictated by the very nature of the players on the field. England do not have the pinch-hitting openers or the lower order batsmen capable of clearing the boundary rope. The West Indies have a much more cavalier approach, but will they have the explosive Deandra Dottin in their team? And if so will she have any sort of form?

Dottin was suspended by the WICB in January for "behaviour unbecoming that could bring the game of cricket into disrepute or be harmful to the interests of cricket", after an incident during the Tri-Nation Twenty20 Women's Series last October in Barbados. No-one is saying what the incident was, but it seems to have been something off the field. She was not selected for the current West Indies tour of New Zealand, but the door seems to have been left ajar to "reintegrate" her back into the Windies team as she is said to have been undergoing "evaluation" through to the middle of March. Reading between the lines it sounds as though if she is contrite and keeps her nose clean she will be back in, but without too much match practice under her belt. The Windies are currently having a tough time of it in New Zealand (two heavy ODI losses), but they may still come good in the five match T20 series.

India have some great players in their team, but they are not a great T20 team, and Indian Women's cricket seems to be in the doldrums at the moment, not helped by the mysogynistic attitude of the BCCI. They have the talent to win games, but they may well not. In fact if they lose their first game to Sri Lanka then they may be left fighting it out for the wooden spoon with Bangladesh. Fortunately the 2016 T20 World Cup will be held in India, so they will automatically be there come what may at this tournament.

Sri Lanka are the dark horses in Group B and I am going to stick my neck out and suggest they may well sneak a semi-final spot (probably on NRR!). This is a competition which they are targeting. They have some explosive top order batsmen and some good spin bowlers. They will be tough to beat and if they can get off to a good start against India, who they have beaten before, they will trouble both England and the West Indies.

I will wait for the result of the NZ v WI T20 series and for all the squads to be announced before I give my final verdict on the four to make the semis, but it is shaping up to be a great looking tournament. Shame only the semis and the final will be on tv and then only on satellite. Hopefully there will be more online streaming of the earlier games - more news on this as I get it.

MD
24/II/14