The International Cricket Council (ICC) has released the full updated fixture list of the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022, scheduled to be held in New Zealand.
As per the schedule, the showpiece tournament will get underway on March 4, 2022 at the Bay Oval in Tauranga, with the hosts New Zealand taking on West Indies.
The first set of games will also see two massive rivalries take the centre stage, with Australia taking on England at Seddon Park in Hamilton on 5 March and India facing Pakistan in Tauranga the following day.
The ICC said that a total of 31 games will be played across 31 days, with the eight teams clashing to get their hands on the coveted World Cup trophy. Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Tauranga, and Wellington will be the six cities that will host the tournament.
While Australia, England, South Africa and India qualified for the showpiece event on the basis of their position in ICC Women’s Championship 2017-20, New Zealand secured an automatic qualification being the hosts of the marquee tournament.
On the other hand, Bangladesh, Pakistan and West Indies were the final three teams to book their berth for the World Cup on the basis of the ODI Team Rankings, after 2021 the Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier was called off due to a Covid-related uncertainty.
As per the schedule released, the tournament will be played in the league format, where all eight teams will face each other once and at the end of the first stage, the top four teams will qualify for the semi-finals.
While the first semi-final will be played at The Basin Reserve in Wellington on March 30, the Hagley Oval in Christchurch will be the host for the second semi-final, which will be held on March 31. Later, the final will be played on April 3.
India will begin their campaign in the tournament against Pakistan on March 6, 2022, at Tauranga’s Bay Oval before takin on host New Zealand and West Indies on March 10 and 12 respectively. The women in Blue will next face England, Australia and Bangladesh on March 16, 19 and 22 respectively before facing South Africa in their last league affair on March 27.
The global cricket governing body also announced that both the semi-finals and the finals will have a reserve day in place.
Notably, the marquee tournament will also mark the return of the women’s global event since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic as the last global women’s event played was the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia in March 2020.
Hosts Australia had won the T20 World cup after beating India in the summit clash.