Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand

Blackheathen

This ODI tournament was postponed last year due to COVID.  It will take place at 6 centres throughout NZ starting on March 4th and the 31 match tournament will conclude on April 3rd at Christchurch, a day/night fixture.  Each venue will be allowed an attendance of 10% ground capacity which is a concession on the part of the Government (otherwise it would have been just 100 fans).

England are the current world champions beating India at Lords in 2017.  England also won the trophy in 1973, 1993, and 2009.

Australia are the most successful team lifting the trophy on 6 occasions.  They will be the most formidable team in this tournament too having lost only 2 of their last 31 matches since the last World Cup.

New Zealand won the tournament in 2000, the only other team to have won.

India have been runner up in 2 of the last 4 tournaments.

South Africa have never gone past the semi finals but based on current form will be a threat having won 13 of their last 16 games.  Two of their 3 defeats came in Super Overs.

This will be a first World Cup tournament for Bangladesh.

These are the England games:

Sat 5 March.   Australia
Wed 9 March. West Indies
Mon 14 March  South Africa
Wed  16 March. India
Sun 20 Mar       New Zealand
Thur 24 Mar       Pakistan
Sun 27. Mar.      Bangladesh
Wed 30 Mar.      First semi Final
Thur 31 Mar.      Second semi final
Sun 3 Apr.         Final

Each team will play each other with 2 points for the winner in the round robin group stage.  There will be one point each for a tie or no result.  The 4 teams with the most points advance to the semi finals..

The winning team takes home $1.32 million, double the amount for the last World Cup in 2017.

suzisausage

56 from 30 balls to win. 

suzisausage

14 needed off 2 balls. 

suzisausage

Lost by 12 runs to the favourites but a positive start.

Blackheathen

The opening game between the hosts and West Indies didn’t go according to script either.  NZ sent the West Indies in and needed 6 runs off the final over to win in which it lost 3 wickets - and the game by 3 runs.  It was an exciting game but marred by shocking fielding from both sides, catches and run-outs.

Blackheathen

England v West Indies

We lost by 7 runs in an exciting finish.  We were ahead of the required run rate but with numbers 9 and 10 at the wicket we still needed over 60 runs.  WI had made 225/6 and we got to 9 to win off 16 balls when number 10 was run out.  Number 11 was bowled and that was that.

By the way, Courtenay Walsh is coaching the West Indies - and not doing a bad job.

Addick Addict

The Women's team appears to be on the same downward spiral as that of the Men. Lost both games so far and it seems that their fielding and bowling that appears to be the issue. They dropped numerous catches yesterday and the opposition have succeeded in amassing score 535-9 in their combined matches.

The real issue though is the rising average age of the team and lack of viable alternatives coming through. Sarah Taylor retired a couple of years ago and whilst Amy Jones is good with the gloves, she is no replacement with the bat - 116 runs in her last 10 innings. Katherine Brunt will be 37 this summer and only three of the current side are actually under 30 (two under 28). Given the vastly increased numbers participating in the sport in the last decade, it is a bit of a mystery as to why there aren't more younger players forcing their way (or even knocking on the door) in to the side.

These things do tend to go in cycles - the likes of Australia and India are now dominating the Women's game - but it would be great to see some visible sign of the next generation. Sophie Ecclestone and Sophia Dunkley are both very good players and will be the bedrock of our team but, beyond that, the cupboard appears to be somewhat bare. As I say, a bit like the Men's game.

Leuth

Shrubsole is someone I said was completely cooked a few weeks ago, and it seems like this is now playing out embarrassingly on the big stage. But she's not the only one (Winfield-Hill for example, and yeah Brunt has gone on too long, possibly vying to keep up with her younger heartthrob who can at least still score hundreds against Australia) 

blackpool72

Leuth said:

Shrubsole is someone I said was completely cooked a few weeks ago, and it seems like this is now playing out embarrassingly on the big stage. But she's not the only one (Winfield-Hill for example, and yeah Brunt has gone on too long, possibly vying to keep up with her younger heartthrob who can at least still score hundreds against Australia) 

Shrubsole has always been a big girl but blimey she has put some timber on she looks enormous 

Blackheathen

Thanks for those comments guys (especially yours blackpool72).  I come from a position of knowing buggerall about Womens cricket except for the fact that England are the defending champions.  But Sophie Ecclestone and Sophie Dunkley were the mainstays of our reply yesterday with Eccles not out 33 off 41 balls, Dunkley 38 off 35 batting at number 7.

suzisausage

International woman's day bypassed some. 

Disappointing start to our title defence. Had hoped to catch the end of the game this morning but it was already over. 

Blackheathen

Wake up little Suzi - we need your help here.  England made 236 and South Africa are two down for 90 going at the rate of just under 4 an over.  We need wickets!

Blackheathen

That’s it then.  South Africa won by three wickets.  They required 4 off their last over and scored the runs with three balls to spare.  A close match, but I think we’re out of contention now for the top 4 and the semi-finals.

Billy_Mix

Standard of England's fielding so far has been village - Sunday village after 4 pints at lunch standard
Aussie is a very good side but England's meekly subsided against Windies and Proteas
Watching as much of the Washes tour and this WWC so far and very few of this England look even close to being fit.  Full-time pros most of them.
Disappointing to put it very mildly.

MrOneLung

They don't need to be any good in these longer formats anymore - got the franchise 100 money to full back on. 

Swindon_Addick

England's catching has been shocking. All three games have been close, and at least the WI and SA games have been lost entirely because we didn't hold catches. Really very disappointing, and with the various mid-ranking teams seeming to have improved a lot, we need some serious attention to the quality of the squad if we're to remain one of the leading countries in women's cricket.

We're not out of it yet; if we win the 4 remaining games we almost certainly qualify. But we didn't go into this competition thinking that fourth in the group stages and making the semi-finals would count as success.

MrOneLung

Says in BBC need to win all remaining games (including India I believe) and still hope other results go our way

Swindon_Addick

As far as I can see, if we win all 4 remaining group games, the only result we need to fall our way is Australia beating India reasonably comfortably, which isn't really an against-the-odds outcome. And if India do somehow beat Australia, there's still a path through as long as West Indies lose another game (or South Africa have the wheels come off). The combination of results to put us out if we win 4 is pretty unlikely. The problem is winning all 4 games, which includes India and New Zealand.

Leuth

Reports of Shrubsole's demise seem fairly premature now, although she does love playing India!

Brunt seems completely finished though

Blackheathen

And she’s having a good day today too, she bowled their opener and had first drop caught.  India currently 88 for 7.  Promising (for a change).

Blackheathen

India all out for 134 in the 37th over after we won the toss and put them in.

This could be an epic day.  We beat Gillingham AND India.

suzisausage

Wahey! Was at the barmy army party when the notifications were coming through.  

I have no idea what time it is, here or at home I’m so tired. Not drunk. No chance of catching the end of this game so will go to sleep with my fingers crossed! 

Chris_from_Sidcup

Well we made hard work of that, limping home with 6 wickets down.

However if we can beat NZ in the next game, we then have the 2 worst sides, Bangladesh and Pakistan to play so could get to 8 points.

Our best hope then would be that Australia and South Africa beat everyone else and then we'd have a chance of squeezing into the final 4. Probably unlikely though.

Blackheathen

Uncross your fingers Suzi.  Here are the standings after our win:

Swindon_Addick

We've put ourselves in the driving seat on net run rate by chasing the target with so many overs left. If we can get to 8 points by beating NZ and the two minnows, we're almost certainly OK. It's even possible we could go through with only 6 points if we lost narrowly to NZ (by only a few runs or with them needing all 50 overs to chase down the total we set), but in that case we'd need to be lucky with how other results turned out.

Having said that, if we want to reach the final we really want to finish third rather than fourth, so as to avoid Australia in the semis. For that, four wins and a bit of luck with how other results fall is essential. Roll on Saturday night and NZ.

Swindon_Addick

New Zealand lost to South Africa which helps England. Our game with NZ at the weekend is basically an eliminator, loser is out, winner is competing with India and West Indies for two places in the semis. If it's us, our good run rate means we'd need other results to fall exactly wrong for us to miss out on fourth and third is still a possibility. Or we could miss out on fourth by failing to beat one of the two minnows, which would be a very England thing to do, but Pakistan and Bangladesh really are both a long way behind the other countries.

Blackheathen

Exciting game that, right down to the wire.  SA won with only three balls to spare and two wickets in hand.

Leuth

Brunt is finished. Finished! Why do we keep playing her? 

Also, why is this in 'Fun, Jokes & Captions'?

Leuth

We're getting destroyed. At least getting dumped out with two group stage matches to go will precipitate Project Reset for the women too

Leuth

Game has swung on a Devine injury. The gulf between the best, most destructive players in this tournament and the less good ones has been really noticeable. While Devine is in, NZ look amazing. While Dottin or Matthews are in, WI look unbeatable. Wolvaardt has carried SA. Australia have batting all the way down, that's the difference

Swindon_Addick

Australia are much better than everyone else, and there are only two genuine minnows this time, so we're left with 5 teams in the middle of the table who are of fairly similar standards. It's not where we want to be, but it's probably no bad thing for the future of the game.