Women’s T20 World Cup 2020: Warm-up preview – February 16

February 16 will feature four warm-up matches of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2020, two each in Adelaide and Brisbane.

Sri Lanka vs South Africa, Karen Rolton Oval, Adelaide

Sri Lanka Women and South Africa Women will meet each other for a practice match at Karen Rolton Oval, Adelaide on Sunday. Sri Lanka’s last tour of Australia was not a happy one as they were beaten by a strong Australian outfit 0-3. In the last World T20 in the Caribbean land, the island country finished at the 4^th spot in Group A and did not qualify for the semifinals. Their opponent South Africa are coming after losing a 5-match T20 series to the host New Zealand by 1-3 margin. They have few injury challenges and would like to have a good practice match to fine tune their combinations. In the last Women’s World T20, they were in the same group with Sri Lanka and beat them by seven wickets but failed to qualify for the knockouts.

Key Players: Chamari Athapaththu, Dane van Niekerk

Prediction:  South Africa to win a tight match.

Bangladesh vs Thailand, Allan Border Field, Brisbane

The second practice match of the day will see two emerging powers from Asia facing each other at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane. Both Bangladesh and Thailand Women’s team qualified for the World T20 through the 2019 World T20 Qualifier. They were the two top teams in the tournament and played each other in the final. Bangladesh were part of the previous World T20 also but finished without a single win. For Thailand Women, this will be their first World T20. With both teams desperately looking for some exposure in the unknown environments of Australia, this should be a very good practice opportunity for them.

Key Players: Jahanara Alam, Sornnarin Tippoch

Prediction: A close fight.

England vs New Zealand, Karen Rolton Oval, Adelaide

Both England Women and New Zealand Women are coming after a few busy weeks. England were playing in the Tri-Nation tournament where they could not qualify for the final over Australia and India. New Zealand made a strong come back in the T20I series against South Africa and won the series 3-1 after losing the ODI series 0-3. Both teams are top contenders for the T20 World Cup along with Australia and India. England Women finished the last World T20 as runners-up whereas the Kiwis were eliminated in the group stage. Both will look to do few experiments to be ready for various match situations which may come in their way in the tournament.

Key Players: Natalia Sciver, Sophie Devine.

Prediction:  New Zealand Women should continue their good form.

India vs Pakistan, Allan Border Field, Brisbane

The arch-rivals and Asian giants India Women and Pakistan Women will meet each other in the final practice match of the day. Indians are in Australia for the last few weeks as they were involved in the Tri-nation T20I series where they lost the final to Australia. Pakistan Women’s last assignment was in December 2019 when they were beaten 3-0 by England. India started the last World T20 very promisingly but lost their semifinal to England amongst the controversy surrounding Mithali Raj. They beat Pakistan by seven wickets who finished 4^th in the same group and did not qualify for next round.

Key players: Shafali Verma, Bismah Maroof

Prediction: A close India-Pakistan game with India winning.