ICC Player Rankings

World champion Australia’s dominating 3-0 series win over South Africa in the last leg of the ICC Women’s Championship reflects in the latest MRF Tyres ICC ODI Rankings for Women Players with captain Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry among those reaping the benefits of some fine performances.

Lanning has consolidated her position at the top of the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings for Women Batters with 232 runs in the series. Lanning played a stellar role in helping her team win the championship as she was the leading scorer with 1,232 runs, the only one to top 1,000 runs in the tournament that ran from 2014-16.

All-rounder Perry has moved up three places to take a career-best second position among batters after scoring 188 runs in the series to finish with 985 runs in the tournament. She shares the spot with India captain Mithali Raj, a former top-ranked batter, but the pair trails Lanning by 91 points. Perry has also advanced one slot to fourth position in the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Player Rankings for Women Bowlers with three wickets in the series and 23 in the tournament.

The latest rankings take into account 15 One-Day Internationals played in November including 12 matches of the ICC Women’s Championship that featured three other series which saw New Zealand defeat Pakistan, England beat Sri Lanka and India defeat the West Indies, all by 3-0 margins.

Australia won the championship with 36 points, followed by England (29), New Zealand (26) and the West Indies (22), which were the other sides to advance directly to the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017. India, South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will get a second chance to make it to the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier to be held in Sri Lanka from February 7 to 21.

New Zealand’s Amy Satterthwaite, who became the first woman batter to score three consecutive ODI centuries in the series against Pakistan, has moved up three places to a career-best fifth position while West Indies batter Deandra Dottin has moved up two positions to 10th place scoring 85 runs in India.

Pakistan’s left-hander Bismah Maroof has got into the 10 top for the first time as she advanced one rank from 11th position while England captain Heather Knight is just six points behind her, also moving up one place to take the 11th slot.

England’s Natalie Sciver has climbed up six places for a career-best 15th position while South Africa’s Lizelle Lee, who scored her maiden century (102) in the last ODI against Australia, has moved up seven ranks to take 16th position.

In the bowlers’ rankings led by India pace bowler Jhulan Goswami, left-arm spinners Jess Jonassen of Australia and India’s Rajeshwari Gayakwad, as well as New Zealand pace bowler Lea Tahuhu have achieved career-best rankings.

Jonassen, who was the most successful bowler in the competition with 31 wickets, has risen to sixth position. Gayakwad, who finished with 25 wickets, has moved up four positions to take 10th place, while Tahuhu has moved up nine slots to take the 13th slot.

The complete results of the ICC Women’s Championship can be seen here.

The ICC Women’s Championship points table can be seen here.

MD
24/XI/16

Busy week to settle WWC17 places

It is a busy last few days in the ICC Women's Championship this week as the final round of fixtures are played and the four teams that automatically qualify for the 2017 World Cup emerge (subject to the ICC's ruling on the unplayed Pakistan v India fixtures)

On Tuesday England, who have already secured their qualification with victory in the second ODI against Sri Lanka, again take on their hosts at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. It will be interesting to see if Katherine Brunt has recovered from her "niggle" which took her off the field in the last game, and if newbie Emma Lamb is given her first cap?

On Wednesday West Indies have their final chance to secure their WWC17 place for themselves as they take on India in the third and final ODI in Vijayawada. They have failed to score enough runs in the first two games and been well beaten by their Indian hosts. If West Indies are again beaten, then the door remains just slightly ajar for South Africa to sneek past them into the top four, although they will have to beat Australia...three times!
As for India, without the six points from the unplayed games against Pakistan, they will finish in fifth or sixth spot and will be in Sri Lanka for the qualifying tournament.

Also on Wednesday New Zealand can seal their place in WWC17 if they win the fourth ODI against Pakistan. In the three games to date they have been untroubled, although Pakistan did manage to put 263/6 on the board in the last game (the first ICCWC match). New Zealand still chased it down with nearly six overs to spare and eight wickets in hand. Amy Satterthwaite helped herself to a second consecutive unbeaten hundred, and she will be looking for more runs as the teams move to Nelson for the final two ODIs of the series.

On Thursday England conclude their series against Sri Lanka with the fourth ODI in the series. It will be England's last ODI before the World Cup warm-ups, unless they can fit in another "unofficial" series before next June.

On Friday Australia start their five match ODI series against South Africa (with the first three to count towards the ICCWC). It is the final series in the ICCWC competition, with Australia already through to the WWC17, but, by this time, it may already be too late for South Africa to get there without going to Sri Lanka first. The second and third games will be played the following Sunday and Wednesday.

And finally Saturday will see the conclusion of the New Zealand v Pakistan series. How many ODI runs can Amy Satterthwaite finish up with in 2016? She has 730 so far!!

MD
14/XI/16

ICC Women's Championship - Final Round

The inaugural ICC Women's Championship concludes this month as the final round of games are played. The current standings look like this

Please note we have given Pakistan 6 points for their unplayed series against India, although this has not been officially confirmed.

The final round of games are :-

New Zealand v Pakistan starting on 9th November

Sri Lanka v England starting on 9th November

India v West Indies starting on 10th November

Australia v South Africa starting on 18th November

As you probably know by now the top four teams automatically qualify for next year's World Cup, while the bottom four must go the ICCWC Qualifier in Colombo in February (more on that here).

Australia have already qualified as winners of the Championship. England need just one point in Sri Lanka to secure their place, and one win for the West Indies in India will ensure that they are England next year too. New Zealand need two wins against Pakistan to be sure to be the fourth team through. In order for South Africa to get through they will have to win at least two of their games against Australia and hope that teams above them fail to win the required games. Just one loss to Australia would ensure both England and West Indies are through, come what may. Two losses for South Africa would mean that New Zealand would also definitely be there.

It looks likely therefore that Australia, England, West Indies and New Zealand will qualify, and that South Africa, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka will have to fight it out with Bangladesh, Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Scotland and Zimbabwe for the four remaining slots, and entry to the ICC Women's Championship 2017-2020.

MD
01/XI/16

Women's World Cup Qualifier - a lot at stake

Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo will host the 10-team ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier which will be staged from 7 to 21 February 2017.

The tournament will see the bottom four sides from the ICC Women’s Championship (likely to be South Africa, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka), along with Bangladesh, Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Scotland and Zimbabwe go head to head for the four remaining spots in the ICC Women’s World Cup in England from 26 June to 23 July 2017.

From the ICC Women’s Championship, host Sri Lanka is certain to feature in the qualifier, while the remaining three sides will be confirmed following the final round of matches to be played in November.

The 10 sides in Colombo will be divided into two groups of five with the top three from each progressing to the Super Six stage, thus securing One-Day International (ODI) status until the next ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier. The top four sides from the Super Six stage will qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017, as well as for the next ICC Women’s Championship, while the top two sides will contest the final on 21 February. As many as 30 50-over matches will be played in the two-week tournament, which will provide another opportunity for the women’s sides below the leading nations to gain vital experience and exposure as well as to hone their skills so that they are fully prepared and geared up for the ultimate event in women’s cricket.

ICC Chief Executive David Richardson said the Colombo event will help the competing sides narrow the gap with the top women’s sides. “Thanks to the ICC Women’s Championship, women’s cricket has never been so strong and I am confident that next year’s qualifying event will give further impetus to the women’s game. “With six teams currently battling for the three remaining automatic World Cup qualification spots through the Women’s Championship, there are going to be some big names going into the qualifying event. This will create a highly competitive environment in Colombo and will also provide the emerging sides with an opportunity to continue to narrow the gap with the frontrunners and with a place at the World Cup at stake anything can happen which will make for an exciting tournament."

MD
01/XI/16

SA v NZ & WI v Eng ODI series coming up this week

Two very important ICC Women's Championship series start next Saturday (8th October) - South Africa v New Zealand and West Indies v England.

It is the first time that New Zealand have ever been on tour to South Africa. Indeed the two sides have only met six times in ODIs, with New Zealand winning all six, but four of those were over 15 years ago. South Africa are just one point behind New Zealand in the ICCWC table, but they know that after New Zealand they have to travel to Australia for their last three ICCWC games. New Zealand on the other hand entertain Pakistan and will be banking on taking 6 points from those three games.

It means that South Africa really need all six points against New Zealand, which is going to be a very tall order... but not impossible. In the last eight months South Africa have recorded ODI victories over both England and the West Indies on home soil, so they know they can compete at the top level. Runs tend to be South Africa's problem, but in young Wolvaart they have a steady opener, and then the big guns - du Preez, Kapp, Lee and van Niekerk can accumulate and in Tryon and Luus they have two lusty hitters late on. New Zealand are a team in fine form - Suzie Bates is in fine touch with the bat after a summer in England and Devine, Satterthwaite and Priest will all have benefited from playing here in the summer. New Zealand's weakness is their lack of penetrative bowling and no spinners that really rip the ball. The sides are playing seven ODIs (the first three count towards the ICCWC). It should be a very even contest.

England have arrived in Jamaica in the West Indies just ahead of hurricane Matthew. Hopefully that will pass through the island early in the week and England can get some practice in ahead of their five match ODI series with the T20 World Champions. Here it is the last three games that will count towards the ICCWC standings, so England have a couple of opportunities to get their line-up right before points are won or lost.

It seems unlikely that Head Coach Mark Robinson will stray far from the line-up that beat Pakistan so convincingly over the summer, but with five spinners to choose from (Hazell, Marsh, Hartley, Ecclestone and Knight) he may well ring the changes, or perhaps even play four spinners rather than three. The brunt of the seam bowling will be down to Misses Brunt and Shrubsole, with back-up from Sciver, Elwiss and Gunn, as needed, and with Langston on hand at some time during the tour. Despite having a thumb injury the non-contracted Langston was preferred to the contracted Farrant and Cross. Quite where Danni Wyatt fits into the picture is not really clear. Had Fran Wilson been fit then she may not even have been on the plane? She is the type of player that might benefit from Robinson's nurturing - she has talent with the bat, but not always the application. If she gets a chance then she will need to grab it. She will not been thrown the ball to bowl.

But what then of the Windies? Sure they are T20 World Champions and they will not be slow to remind anyone who asks of that. But this is 50 over cricket. If Wyatt has an application problem, then the West Indians are a team of Wyatts. I generally use the word mercurial about their performances - quite simply you don't really know what you are going to get. Stafanie Taylor proved she is a world-class player in the KSL in England this year, with some outstanding innings, but she cannot carry the West Indian batting on her own in the 50 over format. Great expectations have been placed on the shoulders of young Hayley Matthews, after she burst onto the scene in Australia a couple of years ago, but since that series in which she scored 55, 89, 60 and 37, she has had poor ODI series against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Africa - teams she should be filling her boots against. She also had a very poor KSL with the bat here for Lancashire Thunder. Deandra Dottin too has not quite fulfilled her potential with the bat. The West Indies need her to step up now too. In addition Kycia Knight, Shaquana Quintyne, Shemaine Campbelle, Britney Cooper and the returning Shanel Daley will need some runs, if West Indies are to be competitive.

As for bowling the Windies have plenty of choice, but not a great deal of penetration. Shamilia Connell is quite sharp, but is yet to make an impact in any series. It is the spin-bowling of Mohammed, Quintyne, Matthews and Taylor, plus the slinging pace of Dottin, on which the Windies will rely. The West Indies have not beaten England in an ODI since 2009, although they have not actually played England in this format in the last three years. If England can start the series well, then they should be tough to beat and could win all three of the important ICCWC games, which would mean that they will be the second team through to the World Cup next June. With the games being livestreamed by WICB it will be a great series to watch.

MD
02/X/16

Aussies beat Sri Lanka to make World Cup

Here is the ICC's wrap up of the series.....

Australia has qualified for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 after a 3-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka in the ICC Women’s Championship. Australia captain Meg Lanning has lauded her side for the way it adjusted to the conditions to become the first side to book a place at next summer’s event to be held in England.

“We were hoping to win all games that we played. I thought Sri Lanka tested us at certain stages but we stuck to our guns pretty well, certainly in the last two games we set pretty high standards. The conditions have been difficult, I guess, from the batting perspective, very different from back home, but the last couple of games we have adjusted very well, we came with our plans and stuck to them,” Lanning said.

Australia had arrived in Sri Lanka needing just one win to qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017. And Lanning’s side achieved it in style when it wrapped up the first match in Dambulla last Tuesday by 78 runs. It then won the two Colombo ODIs by nine wickets and 137 runs.

Australia now sits pretty on 30 points from 18 games, 10 points more than its nearest rival the West Indies, which, like the remaining six sides in the competition, has played three less matches. England is third with 19 points, followed by New Zealand (16), South Africa (15), India (13), Pakistan (eight) and Sri Lanka (five). The top four sides from the ICC Women’s Championship will automatically qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 while the bottom four sides will get a final chance of qualification through the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier in February 2017.

Lanning said the team was preparing for the different challenges in England next year.
“We are going to every game trying to improve and be better and we want to win every game. We have got a World Cup in July that we need to be ready for and play really good cricket, so it’s important we play every game the way we want to and also try on work on things to get better.
The conditions will be different in England. The key is in being aggressive and to take the game on as much as we can. Wickets are very important in ODI cricket. I think we are in a really good spot but have areas to improve,” Lanning said.

Sri Lanka captain Chamari Atapattu said they had been hoping to do better but hoped to learn from the series.

“We are not satisfied with our performances in this series. We couldn’t complete our tasks individually and were unable to follow our plans. This is a big experience - playing a series against Australia - and we hope to learn from it.

“The Australia players applied themselves very well and came up with good individual performances. As for our team, we had some satisfaction in taking several wickets in the first match but we seemed to lose focus in the remaining matches,” Atapattu said.

Australia’s dominance in the series saw some gains for both its batsmen and bowlers.
Left-hander batter Nicole Bolton, who was the pick of the batters with 212 runs and finished as the only centurion of the IWC series with scores of 64, 35 and 113,  moved up three slots to 18^th position in the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Women’s Player rankings.

Bolton’s opening partner Elyse Villani’s 115 runs in the three matches enabled her to re-enter the rankings at 52^nd position while top-ranked Lanning, fourth-ranked Ellyse Perry and sixth-ranked Alex Blackwell retained their positions with reasonably good showings.

Leg-spinner Kristen Beams, who was the most successful bowler in the series with 10 wickets and conceded just 61 runs in three matches, moved up 16 places to 28^th rank in the rankings for bowlers. Beams had hauls of 4-15 in the first match and 4-26 in the third.

Left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen’s four wickets took her up two places to seventh position while pace bowler Holly Ferling’s seven wickets helped her move up 10 places to 52^nd rank.

For Sri Lanka, opener Prasadani Weerakkody moved up four slots to 26^th position while captain Chamara Atapattu made up for her lack of big contributions with the bat by taking five wickets with her medium-pace bowling that helped her move up 17 ranks to 76^th position.

Upcoming ICC Women’s Championship matches:

8-13 October – South Africa v New Zealand in South Africa

14-19 October – West Indies v England in West Indies

  ICC Women’s Championship 2014-16

Teams	P	W	L	Tie	N/R	Points	NRR
Australia	18	15	3	0	0	30	+0.994
West Indies	15	10	5	0	0	20	+0.497
England	15	9	5	0	1	19	+0.754
New Zealand	15	8	7	0	0	16	+0.232
South Africa	15	7	7	0	1	15	-0.069
India	15	6	8	0	1	13	+0.008
Pakistan	15	4	11	0	0	8	-1.030
Sri Lanka	18	2	15	0	1	5	-1.339

Note – two points for a win, no point for a loss and one point for a no-result

MRF Tyres ICC Women’s Player Rankings (as of 26 September 2016, after the Sri Lanka-Australia ODI series)

Batters (top 10)

Rank     (+/-)       Player                  Team     Pts        Avge      Highest Rating

   1         ( - )        Meg Lanning       Aus        820       49.57     834 v NZ at Bay Oval 2016

   2         ( - )        Suzie Bates          NZ         775!      40.50     775 v Aus at Bay Oval 2016

   3         ( - )        Mithali Raj          Ind         722       49.54     839 v Aus at Baroda Vadodar 2004

   4         ( - )        Ellyse Perry         Aus        693       42.83     725 v NZ at Bay Oval 2016

   5         ( - )        Stafanie Taylor    WI         690       45.63     765 v Ind at St Kitts (WP) 2012

   6         ( - )        Alex Blackwell    Aus        650       35.00     683 v Ind at Canberra 2008

   7         ( - )        Sarah Taylor        Eng        640       39.76     803 v Aus at Chelmsford 2009

   8         ( - )        H. Kaur                Ind         630       35.57     679 v SA at Bangalore 2014

   9         ( - )        Deandra Dottin    WI         583       28.28     650 v NZ at Kingston 2013

  10        ( - )        A. Satterthwaite  NZ         577       29.07     653 v Aus at Sydney 2012

Other selected rankings

Rank     (+/-)       Player                  Team     Pts        Avge     Highest Rating

 18         (+3)       Nicole Bolton      Aus        495*!    44.09    495 v SL at Colombo (RPS) 2016

26         (+4)       P.Weerakkody     SL          408*!    18.53    408 v Aus at Colombo (RPS) 2016

Bowlers (top 10)

Rank     (+/-)       Player                  Team     Pts        Avge     Eco       Highest Rating

   1         ( - )        Jhulan Goswami  Ind         730       21.78    3.18      796 v Eng at Chennai 2007

   2         ( - )        Katherine Brunt   Eng        658       22.59    3.36      796 v Ind at Mumbai 2013

   3         ( - )        A. Mohammed    WI         638       17.99    3.26      704 v Aus at Sydney 2014

   4         (+1)       Stafanie Taylor    WI         606       18.72    3.10      768 v NZ at Kingston 2013

   5         (-1)        Ellyse Perry         Aus        588       24.24    4.28      698 v Ind at Mumbai 2012

   6         ( - )        Shibnam Ismail   SA         567       19.27    3.53      641 v Eng at Johannesburg 2016

   7         (+2)       Jess Jonassen       Aus        546*!    20.80    4.10      546 v SL at Colombo (RPS) 2016

   8         (-1)        Jenny Gunn          Eng        543        27.80    3.78      693 v Ind at Scarborough 2014

   9         (-1)        Anya Shrubsole   Eng        539*!    25.64    4.14      539 v Pak at Taunton 2016

  10        ( - )        Morna Nielsen     NZ         532*     26.88    3.68      546 v Ind at Bangalore 2015

Other selected rankings

Rank     (+/-)       Player                 Team     Pts        Avge      Eco        Highest Rating

28          (+16)     Kristen Beams     Aus        413*!    19.60    3.45      413 v SL at Colombo (RPS) 2016

40          (+10)     I. Ranaweera        SL          341*     27.62    4.35      349 v Aus at Colombo (RPS) 2016

46          (+3)       E. Kaushalya       SL          323*     28.20    4.19      377 v WI at Dambulla 2013

52          (+10)     Holly Ferling       Aus        311*!    20.87    4.36      311 v SL at Colombo (RPS) 2016

All-rounders (top five)

Rank     (+/-)       Player                  Team     Pts        Highest Rating

   1         (+1)       Stafanie Taylor    WI         418       559 v NZ at Kingston 2013

   2         (-1)        Ellyse Perry         Aus        407       446 v NZ at Bay Oval 2016

   3         ( - )        Suzie Bates          NZ         336!      336 v Aus at Bay Oval 2016

   4         ( - )        Jhulan Goswami  Ind         288       308 v Aus at Canberra 2016

   5         ( - )        Sophie Devine     NZ         245!      245 v Aus at Bay Oval 2016

MD
26/IX/16

Intense period of ODIs starts soon

With the Women's World Cup looming on the horizon (June/July 2017 in England) all of the eight teams in the ICC Women's Championship are involved in their last two series of ODI games before the end of 2017, with the aim of making the top four and automatic qualification for the tournament.

The current table looks like this

And here are the series to be played :-

Sri Lanka v Australia starts 18th September
West Indies v England starts 8th October
South Africa v New Zealand starts 8th October
Pakistan v India - dates to be announced

Australia v South Africa starts 18th November
Sri Lanka v England starts 12th November
New Zealand v Pakistan starts 8th November
India v West Indies - dates to be announced

Most of the teams are playing as many ODIs as they can cram in to the series, although only the designated three games will count towards the ICCWC table.

And here are the current WCB ODI Team Rankings to the beginning of September. Australia are still top, but England have closed the gap to second. West Indies are closing in in third, and India have jumped over New Zealand into fourth, but in the next few months there could be many changes as teams battle it out.

ODI Team Rankings as at 1st September 2016



MD
12/9/16

Reasons to be cheerful for England and South Africa

England wrapped up what looks like a comfortable five wicket win against South Africa in the third ODI of the tour to take the two ICCWC points and the series 2-1.

Georgia Elwiss in full flow
(c) Don Miles

In reality the win, with six overs to spare, was far from comfortable, until Georgia Elwiss came to the crease with England 91/4, chasing 197 to win. Playing her first game of the tour replacing Lydia Greenway, Elwiss breezed past her previous best of 25* to record her maiden 50 for England in any format (for a lot of her early career she batted at 11). She went on to make 61, striking the ball cleanly and with freedom, before she was out with England needing just nine runs to win. She and Heather Knight (67*) had added 97 for the 5th wicket and taken the game away from a tenacious South African team, which seemed to have a new self-belief of their own.

Elwiss's innings was indicative of the new fearless style of cricket that Mark Robinson, along with coaches Ali Maiden and Ian Salisbury, seems to have instilled in the girls, in his brief tenure at the top of the women's game. Amy Jones, Lauren Winfield, Danni Wyatt and Elwiss all seem to have been asked to play their own pugnacious style of cricket. With the steadying influences of Charlotte Edwards and Heather Knight in the top order mix and with Nat Sciver to come back, it is a heady combination, which may sometimes come unstuck, but will make England an exciting team to watch.

In this series it was not the batting that let England down, but the fielding and the bowling, combined with an exceptional batting display from Lizelle Lee and Marizanne Kapp in the second ODI. England bowled better in the final ODI restricting South Africa to 196/9, and indeed it would have been far fewer had it not been for another belligerent innings from Lee (74) ably supported by the young Sune Luus (20), who will make a top order batsman over the next few years, and also sets the standard in the field for the Proteas. She, along with skipper Mignon Du Preez and 17 year old Laura Wolvaart, took stunning catches in the second ODI to remove set English batsmen and allow South Africa to outfield the England side in all three games. If they can bring that intensity and skill to their T20 game then South Africa could well trouble England in this format too, and their Group A opposition in the WT20 next month - Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Ireland. They will back themselves to beat Sri Lanka and Ireland, and if they can sneak a win against New Zealand or even Australia (who no longer look quite so infallible), or they slip up in any of their other games, South Africa will make the semi-finals of another world championship competition.

England will be relieved to have picked up the four points they have from the ICCWC games, which takes them to 13, equal with South Africa in fourth place in the table. England have by far the easier run in in the competition with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies to play. South Africa on the other hand have West Indies (currently second on 16 points), New Zealand (currently third on 14 points) and Australia (currently top on 20 points). The West Indies' other series is against India (6th), who are currently playing Sri Lanka (1-0 to India so far), and finish with Pakistan. They are not out of the running if they can replicate the form they recently showed against the Aussies. New Zealand are due to face Australia in five days time, before being hosted by South Africa and then finishing with a home series against Pakistan.

For now England and South Africa will focus on the T20 format of the game. They play each other on Thursday, Friday and Sunday, with the latter two games being televised. The WT20 then kicks off on 15th March. It is looking like it could be the most fiercely contested world championship tournament ever.

[3rd ODI scorecard]

MD
15/II/16

England must win South Africa series 3-0

Australia have kicked off the 2016 installment of ICC Women's Championship ODIs (the last year of this World Cup qualifying tournament) with their current series against India. As you will see from the WCB ODI team Rankings Table below they are head and shoulders above any other side in the world having won 25 of their last 31 ODIs (81%) at the start of the series.



After game one of the India series that became 26/32 with a very comfortable 101 run victory after a rather lacklustre run chase by India in pursuit of Australia's 275/6. And after game two it was 27/33 as the Aussies cruised to another comfortable win, chasing down 252 with six wickets in hand.

Current ICCWC Table (05/02/16)

It leaves India in a huge ODI hole with just 5 points from their 11 ICCWC games. They appear to be heading for the qualifying tournament, although they still have series against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the West Indies to come.

Australia play their last game of the India series on Sunday, which is when England kick off their series against South Africa with their first ODI (this is the last series in Round 4 of the tournament). Nothing less than a 3-0 series win will do for England. The six points will take them to 15 in total and a more comfortable third place in the table, with series against Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies to come.

England have had two pretty meaningless warm-up games against South Africa Emerging players. If they are the best they have behind the main squad then South Africa have some worries. The South Africa squad has some familiar names in it - Mignon du Preez, Dane van Niekerk, Marizanne Kapp (all have just returned from the WBBL), plus the exciting pace of Shabnim Ismail, who spent just one weekend with the Melbourne Renegades and picked up 3/10 against the Stars (including England's Nat Sciver). Chloe Tryon, Trisha Chetty, Lizelle Lee and Sune Luus make up the bulk of a decent side, which, on paper, looks somewhat short on batting in the ODI format and short on power in the T20 format.

England have a new Head Coach in Mark Robinson, but the team that takes the park on Sunday is likely to have a very familiar look to it for all England fans. Seven of the 15 man squad have spent the past couple of months in the WBBL in Australia - Brunt, Cross, Edwards, Knight, Taylor, Winfield, Wyatt. The other eight are Beaumont, Elwiss, Greenway, Grundy, Gunn, Hazell, Jones, and Shrubsole (Sciver was originally selected but remains in England due to an ankle injury).

The starting 11 may well look like this - Edwards, Winfield, Taylor, Knight, Greenway, Jones, Wyatt, Brunt, Gunn, Grundy, and Shrubsole.

England should be too strong for South Africa in the longer format of the game, but things might be tighter in the T20 format, when you would hope that England will be looking to find the right combinations for the T20 World Cup in India, which starts in March.

MD
05/II/16

Looking ahead to 2016!

At the end of the year there is always a tendency to look back at what has been, and it is true to say that 2015 has been a watershed year for women's cricket, not so much perhaps on the pitch, but in it's coverage and it's credibility as a standalone, entertaining and financially-viable product. Press and television coverage of the Women's Ashes was unprecedented. Every ball was on the television, including the Test at Canterbury (much to the annoyance of some patronising know-it-all journalists - who actually know very little at all about women's cricket). Every national newspaper had match reports, and carried interviews and background pieces on the players.

The Ashes was followed by the inaugural Women's Big Bash in Australia, which has been a huge success so far, with television audiences beyond anyone's expectations. The tournament looks set to stay and to grow and is a fantastic advert for women's cricket.

But enough of looking back. Let's look forward. 2016 is jam-packed with some great cricket. Here is a quick run-down of what to look out for over the coming 12 months.

January 2016

The Final of the Women's Big Bash
After 56 T20 games the semi-finals of the WBBL will be played on 21st and 22nd January and the final will be on Sunday 24th January. Who will get there? Well my money would be on the Hurricanes, the Heat, The Thunder and, maybe, just maybe, the Strikers. First team to take home the trophy? I have to stick with my original pick and say it will be the Heat. Whoever it is it has been a great step forward for women's cricket.

Australia v India 
Just two days after the Big Bash finishes the Aussies start a three match T20 series against the Indians, followed by three ICC WC ODIs. It could be carnage! The Aussies will be in prime T20 form, a format that the Indians don't seem to like much. The Aussies also sit top of the ICC WC standings and they are likely to hand out a 3-0 drubbing to the Indians in this slightly longer format of the game. With three ICC WC ODI series to play after this the Indians will be staring down the barrel at the bottom of the ICC WC standings.

January should also give us some more details about the new Women's Cricket Super League (WCSL) T20 competition planned by the ECB for August.

February 2016

South Africa v England 
No sooner will the England players have returned from their WBBL experience than they will be on the plane to South Africa for England's first tour under new Head Coach Mark Robinson. England have just renewed the contracts of the current 18 players, plus added Fran Wilson as the nineteenth. Squad, and then team, selection will be interesting and one hopes that the England players will be up for the challenge. Languishing in fifth in the ICC WC table, no less than three wins in the three ODIs will be acceptable.

New Zealand v Australia
Two weeks after their last encounter with the Indians the Aussies will be playing their first ICC WC ODI game in New Zealand. It should be a good series. The Kiwis demolished a poor Sri Lanka side in November and will be keen to nick at least one ODI off their local rivals, if not the series win, as they did to England last February. Under new Head Coach Haidee Tiffen New Zealand  look a rejuvenated unit, but the Aussies will be strong favourites to extend their lead at the top of the table.

South Africa v West Indies
As England leave South Africa so the West Indians arrive for three ICC WC ODIs and three T20s. The Windies will be keen to cement their place in the Top Four (they sit equal top as I write this), but South Africa will know that they need the points too, with New Zealand and Australia their final two opponents. Stafanie Taylor is world class for the Windies, but she cannot win the series on her own. I think the Saffers might just pip them 2-1 on home soil.

March 2016

Women's World T20
Hard on the heels of all the ICC WC ODI action comes the Women's World T20 Cup in India. This is the fifth time the competition has been held and the Aussies have won the last three. They will be hot favourites to make it four in a row. But T20 is a tough game to call.
Ten teams will fight it out for the World Champions crown - the top eight, plus Ireland and Bangladesh, who qualified in December. The groups are :-
Group A - Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Ireland
Group B - England, West Indies, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh
The top two teams in each group make it to the semi-finals, with the final being played on 3rd April at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
Anything less than a place in the final for either Australia or England will be a disaster. The West Indies and South Africa made it to the semis last time in Bangladesh, but they will have to fight tooth and nail with New Zealand to make it this year. India will hope to perform well on home soil (especially now that they too are contracted players), but T20 is not really their thing.
Let's hope the crowds are better than the last time India hosted a World Cup (50 overs in 2013), when the grounds were almost empty for every game.

May 2016

After a short lull the English domestic season will start on 1st May with nine county teams each playing each other to become County Champions. Last year Yorkshire won the title, and this year newcomers Somerset and Staffordshire will find themselves slugging it out with the best in the country in Division One.

June 2016

England v Pakistan
June will see the arrival of the Pakistan team in England for three ICC WC ODIs and three T20s. England will expect to pick up all the points, but it could be a good series for England to introduce some fresh faces to the squad, before the 2017 World Cup to be held in England. Coach Robinson will have found his feet by this time, so it will be interesting to see his first proper squad selection.

India v Sri Lanka
Sometime before the end of July Sri Lanka have to return to India to play at least their three ICC WC ODI games. Both sides will be desperate to get some points. Sri Lanka had seemed to be making progress as a team, but their recent results have been disappointing to say the least. It may be too little too late for India, who will finish their first ICC WC campaign with series against Pakistan and then the West Indies. A top four place may be out of sight for them by this time.

August 2016

Women's Cricket Super League
The much-heralded WCSL should kick-off in England with a two week, six team, T20 competition in August.

The franchise-based tournament aims to bring together the best of the best, but the details are still sketchy. Applications have been invited to run the teams and are now being considered. The winning bidders will be announced in January, but it looks like there will be two London-based teams, one on the south coast, one in the south west, one in the north-west and one in the midlands.

With the success of the Big Bash the pressure will be on the ECB to bring the same pizazz to the WCSL. But the ECB are starting from scratch unlike Cricket Australia who tagged the WBBL onto the existing successful Men's Big Bash teams and structure. The plan is to extend the WCSL to the 50 over game the following season, but I just cannot see this happening for a whole host of reasons.

October 2016

South Africa v New Zealand
This is the first of the 6th round games in the ICC WC and is already pencilled in to start on 8th October. The rest of the games in the round are below and they have to be played by the end of October 2016.
West Indies v England
Pakistan v India
Sri Lanka v Australia
England will almost certainly go to the West Indies in late September/early October.

November 2016

The final round of ICC WC games have to be played in October and November. The fixtures that remain are :-
Australia v South Africa
Sri Lanka v England
India v West Indies
New Zealand v Pakistan
The teams that finish in the top four positions in the table will automatically qualify for the World Cup in England in 2017. The other four will have to compete in the ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier 2017, where they will be joined by six regional qualifiers. The ten teams will be competing for the final four places at the Women's World Cup. It means the bottom four could still get through, but teams like Ireland, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Scotland may have other ideas.

December 2016

WBBL/2
And so we return to the WBBL. No doubt WBBL/2 will be bigger, better and even more fun than WBBL/1!!

MD
30/XII/15

On tour with England in New Zealand

In less than a week England will play their first ICC Women's Championship ODI against the White Ferns at the Bay Oval at Mount Maunganui in New Zealand. It will be an intriguing series. Even more exciting for me is that I will be there to see it. The Cricket Bloggers (a select group of highly intelligent, well-informed, would-be selectors) are going on tour! Well three out of six of us. There's me, Crunch (women's cricket's Simon Hughes) & Snapper Don (the photographer). We are leaving Raf (historian), Syd (cynic) & Marion (stats) back in Blightey to keep an eye on things this end, and to retweet and blog stuff at a sensible time of day!

I've been following women's cricket for more than 10 years and I have been blogging and tweeting about it for more than two, with the aim of raising the profile of the sport. It is amazing to see how far it has come in that relatively short space of time, with no great thanks to me, but by the efforts of the ECB, some of the media and especially the girls that play.

But clashes with the men's game put the media coverage into perspective. England's tour to New Zealand will go almost unreported in the press, due to the fact that the men's World Cup is also being played in Australia and New Zealand at the same time. BBC's TMS will cover the first two ODIs live on the radio, and I hope to provide some updates on games after that for radio listeners, but I have failed to convince any of the written press (tabloids, broadsheets or cricket mags) to take any match reports from the games. There will be match reports and photos on the ECB website and, of course, on this blog, which I hope will reach the people who are interested in the tour. Reaching a wider audience is not going to happen with this series.

The flip side is that England's next series is against the Aussies in England and full coverage of the entire series will be provided on the radio by TMS, and Sky will be showing all the games live, including the four day Test. That is fantastic news. The concept of the Women's Ashes Series - three ODIs, three T20s and a Test - has been a huge marketing success. Each game in the series has meaning and context. The fact the series is against the Old Enemy and that they are the number one team in women's cricket at the moment, will mean the coverage and the interest will be intensified.

The ICC WC has not, and will not, reach those peaks of interest, particularly in England and Australia, as both teams are expected to win most of their games and thereby qualify easily for the World Cup in 2017 (The top four teams automatically qualify. In fact it is being held in England so I think England would qualify automatically come what may). What the ICC WC has done is to create a "tournament" in which all of the top eight countries in the world have to play one another over a three year period and it already seems to be bearing fruit for the likes of South Africa and Pakistan, who have claimed some notable victories. The pressure is on though for teams such as India and New Zealand. Failure to make the top four is unlikely to mean they will not be at the World Cup (they can still qualify through a secondary tournament involving smaller countries), but it will make life very uncomfortable. After England New Zealand are due to play the Indians in India!

As it is the White Ferns find themselves bottom of the ICC WC table and they must be favourites to stay there given their recent form, and recent results against England (they have not won an ODI against them since 2010). Overall New Zealand have won about half of the 278 ODIs they have played, but in the last three years they have lost 22 out of 32 games with one no result. They lost all four ODIs against West Indies on their last tour and failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup last March after defeat to South Africa. But they do have the advantage of playing at home, and the fact that most of the England team have not played a competitive game since September (Edwards, Knight and Taylor being the exceptions having wintered in Australia). They have some class batting in Suzie Bates, the in-form Amy Satterthwaite and Sophie Devine, but their bowling looks weak. It is interesting that 14 year leg-spinner Amelia Kerr was equal top wicket taker (with Ireland's Eimear Richardson) in the domestic T20 competition (10 wickets in five games) and second in the 50 over competition (17 wickets in 10 games) behind off-spinner Frances Mackay (20) (who has not made the White Ferns squad!). England will need to hit the ground running after just one warm-up game against the Northern District Women on Saturday. As professionals you would expect them to do so! Stayed tuned and follow my twitter feed (now called @womenscricblog) for more on the series.

ICC Women's Championship Table

Teams	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
Australia Women	6	6	0	0	0	12	+0.952	1196/236.2	1130/275.0
South Africa Women	6	3	2	0	1	7	+0.334	852/216.1	796/220.4
West Indies Women	6	3	3	0	0	6	+0.584	1128/257.3	1111/292.4
Pakistan Women	6	3	3	0	0	6	-0.398	1030/271.0	1023/243.4
England Women	3	2	0	0	1	5	+0.686	367/80.1	312/80.1
Sri Lanka Women	6	1	4	0	1	3	-0.347	861/226.0	927/223.0
India Women	6	1	4	0	1	3	-0.371	793/224.5	855/219.2
New Zealand Women	3	0	3	0	0	0	-1.712	392/150.0	465/107.3

MD
04/II/15