By Deepika Sarma
New Zealand just thrashed favourites Australia in the group stage of the ICC Women’s World T20 2016! By six wickets!
Are you wondering about what else is going on at the Women’s T20 World Cup right now? If you haven’t rushed off to buy tickets to watch a match in your city, or turned on your TV to watch the matches (half of the women’s group stage matches will be broadcast live on Doordarshan and STAR Sports), then here’s a quick summary of what’s what:
India’s played two matches so far, and plays it’s third crucial match against England tomorrow in Dharamshala.
India’s in Group B, has played Bangladesh and Pakistan, and will play England and the West Indies, the other teams in its group.
India vs Bangladesh
India beat Bangladesh by 72 runs in the opening match of the tournament held at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on March 15, getting off to an electric start with high scores from captain Mithali Raj and some gorgeous shots by Harmanpreet Kaur. India were 163 for 6 wickets, hitting their highest T20 score. Bangladesh were 91 for 5 wickets.
India vs Pakistan
Considering hopes ride high on India getting far this tournament, Saturday’s match against Pakistan in Delhi (March 19) was incredibly close: with visibly shaky nerves and an incredibly slow start, the middle order batters rescued India from what looked like certain doom during that first innings, scoring 96 for 7 wickets. Although it was a small score to defend, towards the end of Pakistan’s innings, with six wickets down and India just getting its groove back again, it looked like India was about to pull off a miraculous win. It looked like they’d been outplayed by Pakistan earlier, but India had managed to regain their composure at last in the most thrilling match so far.
Until with just four overs to go, in a cruel twist of fate, it began to rain and didn’t let up. Play was stopped, and using the Duckworth-Lewis formula, it was determined that Pakistan had won the match by 2 runs. They were 77 for 6 wickets.
Pakistan vs West Indies
Pakistan had earlier played against West Indies, but went down fighting to lose by four runs. It was West Indies 103 for 8 wickets, and Pakistan 99 for 5 wickets.
West Indies vs Bangladesh
West Indies scored 148 for 4 wickets, with skipper Stafanie Taylor making 40 runs and Hayley Mathews making 41. Bangladesh managed 99 runs for 5 wickets.
Bangladesh vs England
England won the match, as expected, but Bangladesh put up a surprise show of energy and followed England’s score with an enthusiastic (albeit unsuccessful chase). England were 153 for 7 wickets, while Bangladesh made 117 for six.
So five Group B matches down and halfway through, here’s how things stand at the moment:
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Meanwhile, what’s been up with Group A?
New Zealand vs Sri Lanka
Played on the very first day of the tournament, Sri Lanka’s batting order collapsed in the first innings with 110 for 8 wickets. New Zealand had an easy win, scoring 111 for 3 wickets, with skipper Suzie Bates (37) and Rachel Priest (28) building a partnership of 64 runs.
New Zealand vs Ireland
This time, captain Suzie Bates was on a gigantic roll. She smashed 82 of 60 balls, with seven fours and two sixes along the way. New Zealand won against Ireland by a humongous margin: they made 177 for 3 wickets, and kept Ireland down to 84 for 5 wickets.
Australia vs New Zealand
Most excitingly, New Zealand had its third consecutive win last evening, defeating three-time defending champions Australia, who got off to a terrible start, losing four wickets in four overs. Australia were 103-8, and New Zealand were 104-4. With this win, New Zealand have secured a spot for themselves in the semi-finals.
Australia vs South Africa
Australia had to work hard for its victory, chasing South Africa’s score of 102-6 with 105-4. Meg Lanning, Australia’s captain, felt unwell before the match but still managed to lead her team to victory, stalling the Australian batter’s collapse with some solid batting of her own.
Sri Lanka vs Ireland
Sri Lanka scored 129 for 7, restricting Ireland’s score to 115 for 8 wickets. Irish bowler Ciara Metcalfe took four wickets during Sri Lanka’s innings. Captain and all-rounder Shashikala Siriwardene suffered a hamstring tear and at the Ireland match, she was ruled out of the rest of the tournament.
That leaves Group A in the following shape:
So that’s it, folks. Only 10 more matches to go before we hit the semi-finals.
Can you handle it?