ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020: Warm-up matches wrap-up

ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020: Warm-up matches wrap-up

ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020 captains

All ten teams played two warm-up matches each ahead of the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup. The outcome of these matches turned out to be as expected in more ways than one: three matches were washed out without a ball being bowled, while Sri Lanka and Bangladesh pulled off massive upsets. Here is how the teams fared:

Australia: Their match against West Indies was washed out. In their second, they were made to work after they restricted South Africa to 147/6. Meg Lanning (47 in 36 balls) and Rachael Haynes (39 in 35) saw them home with 3 balls to spare.

Bangladesh: There was no play in their match against Thailand. They then seemed to be set – expectedly – for a defeat against Pakistan, after scoring 111/8. But Jahanara Alam (3.4-0-22-4) and Khadija Tul Kubra (4-0-11-3) kept striking to bowl out Pakistan for 106.

England: Danni Wyatt (42 in 32) and Heather Knight (45* in 36) helped England win in 18 overs after Katherine Brunt (4-0-23-3) and Anya Shrubsole (4-0-19-2) restricted New Zealand to 134/9. Then they were thrashed by 10 wickets by Sri Lanka after scoring a mere 122/9.

India: There was no play in the Pakistan match, following which their top order caved in in their other match. They somehow reached 107/8, but that turned out to be enough as the bowlers, led by Poonam Yadav (4-0-20-3 in her comeback match), kept West Indies to a mere 105/7.

New Zealand: Katey Martin’s 44-ball 57 was not enough to take New Zealand past 134/9 against England. They lost by 6 wickets despite a decent comeback effort from Lea Tahuhu (3-0-20-2). They then beat Thailand by 81 runs (Suzie Bates 78 in 47, Amelia Kerr 54 in 40, Leigh Kasperek 3-1-9-3).

Pakistan: No play against India and a shock defeat against Bangladesh meant that Pakistan did not have the best of times. However, a couple of individual performances (Aiman Anwer 3-0-12-2, Javeria Khan 41 in 34) stood out.

South Africa: Marizanne Kapp (44 in 44 balls), Laura Wolvaardt (38 in 24), and Sune Luus (4-0-20-4) helped South Africa beat Sri Lanka by 41 runs. They then lost to Australia despite some excellent performances by Dane van Niekerk (62 in 51) and Kapp (4-0-16-4).

Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka comfortably lost to South Africa despite Udeshika Pradbodhani’s 4-0-8-2, but then came back in style to win by 10 wickets. Shashikala Siriwardene (4-0-22-4) and Chamari Athapaththu (4-0-21-3) first restricted England to 122/9 before Athapaththu (78* in 50) and Hasini Perera (29* in 25) saw them to a win in the 13th over.

Thailand: Thailand’s “revenge” match against Bangladesh was washed out. They then lost to New Zealand by 81 runs, the only performance of note coming from Chanida Sutthiruang (36 in 31), following which they took cricketing lessons from the New Zealand team!

West Indies: After a washout against Australia, West Indies put up a fight against India before losing by 2 runs. There were impressive performances from Shamilia Connell (4-0-20-2), Ania Mohammed (3-0-16-2), and Lee-Ann Kirby (42 in 41).