Cricket | Women’s T20 World Cup preview

The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia is just under a month away. We’ve taken a look at the best bets ahead of the seventh running of the limited overs tournament.

The competition down under features 10 teams; the eight top-ranked teams based on their 2018 finishing positions, and two qualifiers. Bangladesh and Thailand were the two to qualify. They join Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies. Those are the 10 sides fighting it out to win the trophy.

Check out all our cricket odds here.

Group A

Four-time winners and defending champions of the Women’s T20 World Cup Australia feature here. Joining them are India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and qualifiers Bangladesh. The Aussies have reached the final in five of the six T20 World Cups and are expected to feature in the business end of the tournament. They are playing in their own back yard and are the 8/13 favourites for a fifth win.

Ranked third and fourth, having played well in this competition previously, India (5/1) and New Zealand (10/1) are too dangerous to dismiss. Both have quality players and are a match for anyone. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh look heavily up against it having struggled to compete in previous editions.

Group B

2009 champions England headline Group B and they look to go one better than their runners-up finish in 2018. They are 4/1 second-favourites for a second World T20 win and have won most of their matches in this competition. They’ll be hoping to become just the second team to win it more than once.

Mark Robinson’s side are joined by South Africa (16/1), West Indies (33/1), Pakistan and debutants Thailand. South Africa, like their male counterparts, haven’t done themselves justice in the T20 World Cup, making it to just one semi-final performance six years ago. 2016 champions West Indies and have some superb players, including top-10 batsman Stafanie Taylor and leg-spinner Afy Fletcher.

Verdict

It’s very hard to look past the Aussies here because of their virtually exemplary record in the competition. Home-field advantage is a massive bonus and they’ll be very tough to beat, despite their short odds.

England should go close, but often fall at the final hurdle so it could be worth chancing New Zealand instead. Having finished runner-up in the last two tournaments, they could be the value to serve it up to their neighbours.

Comments

comments

Comments

Leave a Reply