The 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup was the seventh

ICC Women's T20 World Cup The ICC Women's T20 World Cup (known as the ICC Women's World Twenty20 until 2019) is the biennial international championship for women's Twenty20 International cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cri ...

tournament. It was held in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

between 21 February and 8 March 2020. The

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

took place at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...

. Hosts

won the tournament, beating

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

by 85 runs, to win their fifth title. It was a standalone tournament, the men's tournament was initially held eight months ahead of the schedule, but would be postponed to 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Australia were the defending champions, and lost their opening match of the tournament against India. For the first time at the Women's T20 World Cup, the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

(ICC) announced the use of technology to monitor front-foot

no-ball In cricket, a no-ball is a type of illegal delivery to a batter (the other type being a wide). It is also a type of extra, being the run awarded to the batting team as a consequence of the illegal delivery. For most cricket games, especially ...

s for all matches during the tournament. The

third umpire The third umpire (or TV Umpire) is an off- field umpire used in some cricket matches, particularly international matches. Their role is to make the final decision in questions referred to them by the two on-field umpires or the players. The thir ...

assisted the umpire at the bowler's end in calling the front-foot no-balls, communicating this to the on-field umpires. India were the first team to qualify for the semi-finals, after recording three wins from their first three matches. India won their final group game, against

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, and finished top of Group A.

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

were the second team to qualify for the semi-finals, after they also won their first three group games.

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

were the third team to advance to the semi-finals, after beating the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

in their final group game. In the final match of Group A, hosts Australia beat

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

by four runs to take the fourth and final spot in the semi-finals. The final match in Group B, between South Africa and the

, was abandoned due to rain, meaning South Africa finished top of the group. Therefore, England were drawn against India in the first semi-final, and Australia faced South Africa in the second semi-final. The first semi-final was abandoned with no play due to rain, meaning India advanced to the final, after finishing top of Group A. It was the first time that India had progressed to the final of the Women's T20 World Cup. In the second semi-final, hosts Australia beat South Africa by five runs in a rain-affected match.

Teams and qualification

The tournament featured 10 teams. The eight top-ranked teams based on finishing positions from the

2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 The 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 was the sixth edition of the ICC Women's World Twenty20, hosted in the West Indies from 9 to 24 November 2018. It the second World Twenty20 hosted by the West Indies (after the 2010 edition), and the West Ind ...

qualified automatically. The remaining two qualification spots were determined through the 2019 ICC Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier, with Bangladesh and Thailand progressing. It was the first time that Thailand had qualified for a Women's T20 World Cup tournament. Following the conclusion of the qualification tournament, Bangladesh were placed in Group A and Thailand were placed in Group B.

Squads

Each team selected a squad of 15 players before the tournament, and were also able to replace any injured players.

Venues

In January 2018, the ICC announced that six venues in four cities would host matches. The semi-finals were hosted at the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and as ...

, with the final being played at the

Match officials

On 12 February 2020, the ICC appointed the officials for the tournament. Along with the twelve

umpires An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

, Steve Bernard, Chris Broad and G. S. Lakshmi were also named as the match referees. *

Lauren Agenbag Lauren Agenbag (born 16 August 1996) is a South African cricket umpire. Since February 2019, she has set several firsts in regards to women's umpiring in international and domestic cricket matches. Career On 1 February 2019, she stood in the ope ...

* Gregory Brathwaite *

Chris Brown Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. According to '' Billboard'', Brown is one of the most successful R&B singers of his generation, having often been referred to by many contempo ...

* Kim Cotton * Shaun George * Nitin Menon *

Claire Polosak Claire Antonia Polosak (born 7 April 1988) is an Australian cricket umpire. Polosak is a school teacher by profession. In January 2017, she was one of the four female umpires named by the ICC to stand in matches in the 2017 Women's Cricket World ...

Ahsan Raza Ahsan Raza (born 29 May 1974 in Lahore, Pakistan) is a Pakistani cricket umpire and former cricketer. In November 2020, in the second Twenty20 International (T20I) between Pakistan and Zimbabwe, he stood in his 50th T20I match as an on-field u ...

* Sue Redfern * Langton Rusere *

Alex Wharf Alexander George Wharf (born 4 June 1975) is a former English ODI cricketer and a first-class cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-handed fast-medium bowler, who ended his career with the Welsh side Glamorgan County Cricket Clu ...

* Jacqueline Williams

Group stage

The ICC released the fixture details on 29 January 2019 in Sydney.

Group A

2020 ICC W T20 WC I v B 02-24 Verma (06)

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Group B

2020 ICC W T20 WC E v SA 02-23 du Preez (02)

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Knockout stage

Semi-finals

----

Final

Statistics

Australia's

Beth Mooney Bethany Louise Mooney (born 14 January 1994) is an Australian professional cricketer who plays for the national cricket team as a batter in all three formats of the game. At the domestic level, she plays as a wicket-keeper-batter for Western ...

was the leading run-scorer in the tournament, with 259 runs. Her teammate,

Megan Schutt Megan Schutt (born 15 January 1993) is an Australian cricketer who has played for the national team as a medium-fast bowler since 2012. Domestically, she plays for the South Australian Scorpions, for whom she debuted in 2009, and, since 2015, ...

, was the leading wicket-taker, finishing with thirteen dismissals.

Marketing

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

Australia, the United Nations Children's Fund was chosen as the official charity partner for the tournament. Proceeds were raised throughout the competition to support UNICEF Australia's Sports for Development program to empower girls and boys in Sri Lanka. Tickets for the event went on sale on 21 February 2019. All matches, including the final, had ticket prices for adults starting from $20. The ICC stated that more than half of all tickets available for sale for the tournament were priced at $20, with child tickets priced at $5.

Star Sports Star Sports refers to several current or former Asian sports networks owned by The Walt Disney Company: * Star Sports (East Asian TV channel) * Star Sports (Indian TV network) * Fox Sports (Southeast Asian TV network) Fox Sports (formerly ESPN ...

were awarded the global broadcast rights for the tournament.

References

Notes

External links

Series home at ESPN Cricinfo
{{World championships in 2020

T20 World Cup The ICC Men's T20 World Cup (earlier known as ICC World Twenty20) is the international championship of Twenty20. Organised by cricket's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), the tournament consists of 16 teams, comprising t ...

International women's cricket competitions in Australia Women's T20 World Cup Women's T20 World Cup Women's T20 World Cup