Who will win Women’s T20 World Cup?

By Kersi Meher-Homji

ICC Women’s Twenty 20 World Cup starts this Friday on 21st February and the question on everyone’s lips is: who will win it? The three favourite teams are Australia, India and England. India and Australia will meet in the opening match in Sydney, this Friday starting at 7 pm.

Let us concentrate on T20 Women’s World Cup [T20 WWC] to be staged in Australia this year. This is the seventh T20 WWC and the first one to be hosted by Australia.

Reigning champions Australia has won the last six T20 WWC in 2010, 2012-13, 2013-14, 2015-16 and 2018-19.

England won the inaugural T20 WWC in 2009 and was runners-up in 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2018-19.

New Zealand was runners-up in 2009 and 2010. West Indies were runners-up in 2015-16.

India has failed to enter the final even once. Their best performance has been to enter the semi-final in 2009, 2010 and 2018-19.

Despite this disappointing record, India’s batting dynamo Smriti Mandhana said that her side is not daunted by Australia, adding they hold no fears playing against the defending champions on opening night of the T20 WWC.

70 per cent of tickets in the Semi Finals in Cricket World Cup were bought by the Indian fans. Now Sydney Indians are gearing up to support the Indian Women team in the match next Friday on 21st February.

Australia bolstered their confidence with success in the tri-series last week but two of their major challengers, India and England, have also come away with confidence that they can defeat the host nation. Favourites to make it back-to-back cups, Australia was given an insight to the level of competition they face in the coming weeks by England and India, who both posted victories over them.

India also tested Australia in Wednesday’s final only to be crippled by a late batting collapse while England was in the driver’s seat in their last game before crumbling.

Below is the WWC itinerary:

Venues: Sydney showground, Melbourne, Perth and Canberra.

Ten teams will participate: Australia (A), New Zealand (NZ), England (E), South Africa (SA), West Indies (WI), India (I), Pakistan (P), Sri Lanka (SL), Bangladesh (B) and Thailand (T).

Fixtures:

21/2 A v I, 7pm*, Sydney

22/2 WI v T, 6pm, Perth;     NZ v SL, 10pm, Perth

23/2 E v SA, 10pm, Perth

24/2 A v SL, 6pm, Perth;     I v B, 10pm, Perth

26/2 E v T, 3pm, Canberra;     WI v. P, 7pm, Canberra

27/2 I v NZ, 3pm, Melbourne;     A v B, 7pm, Canberra

28/2 SA v T, 3pm, Canberra;     E v P, 7pm, Canberra

29/2 NZ v B, 11am, Melbourne;     I v SL, 3pm, Melbourne

1/3 SA v P, 3pm, Sydney;     E v WI, 7pm, Sydney

2/3 SL v B, 11am, Melbourne;     A v NZ, 3pm, Melbourne

3/3 P v T, 3pm, Sydney;     WI v SA, 7pm, Sydney

5/3 First semi-final, 3pm, Sydney;     Second semi-final, 10pm, Sydney

8/3 FINAL, 6 pm, Melbourne.

*All times in local time; final times are subject to change.

  • All 23 matches, including the spectacular opening, semi-finals and final, have adult tickets from $20 and children’s tickets for $5.
  • The final will be held at the biggest cricket stadium in the world, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Sunday 8 March 2020, International Women’s Day.
  • Tickets are available at t20worldcup.com

Cricket Australia has requested cricket fans across the country to don their green and gold and deck out their homes, school classrooms, workplaces and cricket clubs in support of the Australian Women’s Team during the ICC T20 Women’s World Cup. All Australians are encouraged to wear their green and gold for #CmonAussie Colours Day.

“By wearing green and gold this Friday, we are doing what we can to unite the nation to not only get behind our Australian women’s cricket team, but also more broadly supporting women in sport,” Anthony Everard, Executive General Manager of Fan Engagement, said.

“Players like Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy are household names and the ICC T20 Women’s World Cup presents another opportunity for us to add to the legacy for future generations of young girls that dream of playing cricket on the world stage.”

Matthew Mott, Australian Women’s Team coach, said,  “A home world cup of any nature is very special. On behalf of the team and our support staff, I want to thank our fans for their support in the lead up to the tournament.  We’ve got some serious competition in our group, as we saw during the tri-series, and it will take the entire nation to get us over line, whether that’s at the venue, watching from home or out and about with friends.”

Prizes are on offer, with the major prize winners set to enjoy an all expenses VIP trip to Melbourne to attend the ICC T20 Women’s World Cup Final at the MCG on March 8. Fans can share their green and gold efforts using #CmonAussie, as people from across the country get behind the team.

 

But don’t forget the Indian supporters led by the Swamy Army chanting “Jitega Bhai Jitega, India jitega; India, India”.

Here is the Indian squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Veda Krishnamurthy, Tania Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Shikha Pandey, PoojaVastrakar, Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, RajeshwariGaekwad and Richa Ghosh.

Fans can watch all T20 World Cup games on Fox Cricket on Foxtel, Kayo or Channel Nine.

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