The Papua New Guinea women's national cricket team, nicknamed the Lewas, represents the country of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

in international

women's cricket Women's cricket is the form of the team sport of cricket when played by women only. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries around the world and 108 national teams participate internationally. 11 of them have WTest and WODI ...

. The team is organised by

Cricket PNG Cricket PNG, originally founded as the Papua New Guinea Cricket Board of Control, is the official Sport governing body, governing body of the sport of cricket in Papua New Guinea. Its current headquarters is in Port Moresby. Cricket PNG was foun ...

, an associate member of 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). Papua New Guinea has been the leading women's associate team in the

ICC East Asia-Pacific ICC East Asia-Pacific is the International Cricket Council region responsible for administration of the sport of cricket in East Asia and the Pacific area. The region was founded in 1996 with a regional office established in 1999. The area cove ...

(EAP) since its international debut in 2006. It has represented EAP at the 50-Over World Cup Qualifier and T20 World Cup Qualifier on a number of occasions, making the semi-finals of the 2018 and 2019 T20 World Cup Qualifiers. It was awarded

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

(ODI) status in 2022.

History

Papua New Guinea made its international debut in September 2006, playing a three-match series against

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

to determine which team would represent the

(EAP) region at the 2008 World Cup Qualifier.Other women's matches played by Papua New Guinea women
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 26 November 2015. Papua New Guinea won the series against Japan three–nil, but at the World Cup Qualifier won only two matches, both against

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

. The team failed to qualify for either the 2011 World Cup Qualifier or the 2013 World Twenty20 Qualifier, with Japan representing the EAP region on both occasions.Women's Twenty20 matches played by Papua New Guinea women
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 26 November 2015. At the 2015 Pacific Games, which Papua New Guinea hosted, a women's cricket event was included for the first time. The team narrowly lost to

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

in the final, having been undefeated up to that point. Later in the year, Papua New Guinea participated at its second global tournament, the 2015 World Twenty20 Qualifier, placing fifth out of eight teams. In April 2018, the ICC granted full

Women's Twenty20 International Women's Twenty20 International (WT20I) is the shortest form of women's international cricket. A women's Twenty20 International is a 20 overs-per-side cricket match between two of the International Cricket Council (ICC) members. The first Twent ...

(WT20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

matches played between Papua New Guinea women and another international side since 1 July 2018 have been a full WT20I. The team played its first WT20I match against

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

on 7 July 2018 at

VRA Cricket Ground VRA Cricket Ground is a cricket ground in Amstelveen, the Netherlands, the home of VRA Amsterdam since 1939. It has a capacity of 7000 spectators and regularly plays host to the Netherlands home games in the World Cricket League, Intercontinen ...

Amstelveen Amstelveen () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands with a population of 92.353 as of 2022. It is a suburban part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area. The municipality of Amstelveen consists of the historical villages ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in the

2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier The 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier was an international women's cricket tournament held from 7 to 14 July 2018 in the Netherlands. It was the third edition of the Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier and was the qualification tournament ...

. In December 2020, the ICC announced the qualification pathway for the 2023 ICC Women's T20 World Cup. Papua New Guinea were named in the 2021 ICC Women's T20 World Cup EAP Qualifier regional group, alongside seven other teams. However, in August 2021, the

(ICC) confirmed that the tournament had been cancelled 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 ...

, and due to their ranking, Papua New Guinea qualified for the global qualifier held in 2022. In late 2021, Australian

Kath Hempenstall Kath Hempenstall (born 20 September 1988) is an Australian cricket coach and former player. She played for the Perth Scorchers in the Women's Big Bash League The Women's Big Bash League (known as the WBBL and, for sponsorship reasons, the ...

was appointed head coach of the Lewas. In May 2022, the ICC announced Papua New Guinea as one of five women's sides to gain

Women's One Day International Women's One Day International (WODI) is the limited overs form of women's cricket. Matches are scheduled for 50 overs, equivalent to the men's game. The first women's ODIs were played in 1973, as part of the first Women's World Cup which was ...

(ODI) status.

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

and the

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

are the other four teams.

Current squad

This lists all the players who were named in the most recent squad. ''Updated on 9 October 2022.'' Uncapped players are listed in ''italics''.

Tournament history

ICC Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier The ICC Women's T20 World Cup Qualifier (until 2018, the ICC Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier) is an international cricket tournament that serves as the final step of the qualification process for the Women's T20 World Cup. The qualifier was hel ...

* 2015: 5th (DNQ) * 2018: 4th (DNQ) * 2019: 4th (DNQ) *

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

: 5th (DNQ)

Pacific Games The Pacific Games (French: Jeux du Pacifique), is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from Oceania. The inaugural Games took place in 1963 in Suva, Fiji, and most recently in 2019 in Apia, Samoa. The Games wer ...

* 2019: 2nd

Records and Statistics

International Match Summary — Papua New Guinea Women ''Last updated 6 October 2022''

Twenty20 International

*Highest team total: 219/5 v.

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

on 3 October 2022 at Independence Park Ground 2,

Port Vila Port Vila (french: Port-Vila), or simply Vila (; french: Vila; bi, Vila ), is the capital and largest city of Vanuatu. It is located on the island of Efate. Its population in the last census (2009) was 44,040, an increase of 35% on the pr ...

. *Highest individual innings: 88 *, Naoani Vare v.

on 5 October 2022 at Vanuatu Cricket Ground,

. *Best innings bowling: 5/2, Hollan Doriga v.

on 3 October 2022 at Vanuatu Cricket Ground (Oval 2),

. Most T20I runs for PNG Women Most T20I wickets for PNG Women T20I record versus other nations ''Records complete to WT20I #1261. Last updated 6 October 2022.''