The 2023 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup will be the eighth renewal of the international tournament. South Africa will play hosts this year and it will take place from February 10 to February 26.
Ten teams will be involved in the ICC event which was pushed back from 2022 to early 2023, as they bid to be crowned the champions at the end of the three-week competition. Here is everything you need to know about the women’s tournament.
Australia Defending Champions
Australia goes into this tournament as the defending champions after lifting the trophy in 2020. They defeated India in the final by 85 runs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of their home supporters in Melbourne.
Congrats to Australia on winning its 5th ICC Women’s T20 World Cup title (2010, 2012, 2014, 2018 & 2020)
Australia becomes the 2nd team to win an ICC Women’s T20 World Cup when hosting the tournament (England in 2009)#T20WorldCup #T20WorldCupFinal #CmonAussie #FillTheMCG 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/TJegv7gKEA
— Fox Sports Lab (@FoxSportsLab) March 8, 2020
The hosts lost their opening game of the 2020 competition against India but then won five straight matches to claim the trophy, including a semi-final success against South Africa which was rain-affected, with Australia prevailing by five runs from the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method.
Australia is bidding for its sixth success in the tournament this year. England (2009) and West Indies (2016) are the only two other teams that have lifted the trophy in this event. New Zealand has been runners-up twice (2009 and 2010), while India had to settle for the runners-up spot in 2020.
The defending champions are the number-one ranked team in T20 cricket. They have 6,873 points from 23 matches, which leaves them with a rating of 299. England is second best on that list, with New Zealand currently occupying third place.
Two Groups of Five in the Opening Stage
The opening stage of the 2023 Women’s T20 World Cup will feature two groups of five. South Africa was handed an automatic place in the tournament due to being the hosts. They are joined by Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the West Indies who qualified due to their world rankings. Bangladesh and Ireland took the other two places after making it through the qualifying tournament which took place in 2022.
Group A consists of defending champions Australia, Bangladesh, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka. The winner and runner-up from that group will qualify for the knockout stages.
So much love for this team! ❤️
Next up the T20 World Cup in South Africa 👀
🌴 #WIvENG 🏴 pic.twitter.com/NfMQiDblzE
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) December 22, 2022
In Group B, England, India, Ireland, Pakistan, and the West Indies will all face each other once. Just like with Group A, the top two teams at the end of the standings reach the semi-finals.
Three Venues Set Be Used at the Tournament
There will be three venues used for the 2023 Women’s T20 World Cup. Games will be played at Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town, St George’s Park Cricket Ground in Gqeberha, and Boland Park in Paarl.
The semi-finals and final will both come at Newlands Cricket Ground. That is one of the venues currently being used for the inaugural franchise league, SA20, where as of January 27, the hosts, MI Cape Town, are +600 in the cricket betting to win the trophy.
There have been some high scores at Newlands Cricket Ground during the 2023 SA20. Pretoria Capitals scored 182 runs from their 20 overs against MI Cape Town, while the Sunrisers Eastern Cape chased 171 to win a game there by two wickets.
St George’s Park Cricket Ground and Boland Park are slightly smaller grounds, but both are used to hosting international matches. They were two of the venues from the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa.
All-Women Match Officials
This year’s Women’s T20 World Cup will be the first major tournament where the match officials will be entirely women. In total there will be 10 umpires used across the competition and three match referees.
Lauren Agenbag (South Africa), Kim Cotton (New Zealand), Anna Harris (England), N Janani (India), Claire Polosak (Australia), Vrinda Rathi (India), Nimali Perera (Sri Lanka); Sue Redfern (England), Eloise Sheridan (Australia), Jacqueline Williams (West Indies) have all been selected to umpire the tournament. Nine of those have a lot of experience in ICC events, while Harris is making her debut in a major competition.
The match referees in South Africa will be Shandre Fritz (South Africa, G.S. Lakshmi (India), and Michell Pereira (Sri Lanka).
With 23 matches scheduled for the tournament, the 2023 Women’s T20 World Cup is a great chance for the leading players in the world to promote and showcase the women’s game
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