The 2017–2020 ICC Women's Championship was the second edition of the ICC Women's Championship, a Women's One Day International cricket (WODI) competition that was contested by eight teams, to determine qualification for the 2022 Women's Cricket World Cup. The top four teams, along with hosts New Zealand, qualified directly for the World Cup. The remaining three teams progressed to the 2021 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier tournament.
In the previous tournament, the first three WODIs counted towards qualification. However, for this tournament, the International Cricket Council (ICC) requested that additional matches are played as Women's Twenty20 Internationals (WT20Is). Inline with the updated ICC rules, two balls were used for the first time in WODI matches.
When originally announced in October 2017, the top three teams, along with hosts New Zealand, would qualify for the World Cup. In October 2018, the qualification structure was changed allowing the hosts plus the top four teams to qualify directly for 2022 World Cup.
The first set of fixtures was announced by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), with Pakistan playing New Zealand in the United Arab Emirates in October 2017. The first round of fixtures to be played were between the West Indies and Sri Lanka, which started on 11 October 2017. In the opening fixture of the championship, the West Indies beat Sri Lanka by 6 wickets.
In March 2019, England beat Sri Lanka 3–0. The result meant that Sri Lanka Women could no longer qualify directly for the 2022 Women's Cricket World Cup, progressing to the 2021 Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier tournament instead. In September 2019, the ICC confirmed that Australia were the first team to qualify for the World Cup. In October 2019, Australia took an unassailable points lead to win the ICC Women's Championship trophy for the second time in a row. In February 2020, the Australian team were presented with the ICC Women's Championship trophy, ahead of their Women's Twenty20 International (WT20I) match against India.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the series between South Africa and Australia in March 2020. Two unscheduled series, New Zealand against Sri Lanka and Pakistan against India, were also thrown into doubt due to the pandemic. On 3 April 2020, New Zealand Cricket confirmed that their planned tour of Sri Lanka, scheduled to take place in April, had been cancelled due to the pandemic. However, the result of the series would have no impact on the final standings, as Sri Lanka had already been eliminated, and New Zealand had progressed to the World Cup as hosts. On 15 April 2020, the ICC confirmed that the points would be shared for the three series that were not played.
Results The breakdown of results is as follows. During each round, each team played against its opponent three times.
RoundWindowHome teamAway teamDateResult1 – February 20183–02–11–21–22 – June 20183–00–30–32–13 – October 20182–11–21–10–34 – February 20191–22–13–03–02–15 – June 20190–31–13–06 – November 20190–33–01–2 0–07 – April 20200–20–30–00–0
Notes:
Points table
Fixtures
2017–18
West Indies v Sri Lanka
Australia v England
Pakistan v New Zealand (in the UAE)
South Africa v India
New Zealand v West Indies
India v Australia
Sri Lanka v Pakistan
2018
England v South Africa
England v New Zealand
2018–19
Sri Lanka v India
West Indies v South Africa
Pakistan v Australia (in Malaysia)
New Zealand v India
Pakistan v West Indies (in the UAE)
South Africa v Sri Lanka
Australia v New Zealand
India v England
Sri Lanka v England
2019
South Africa v Pakistan
England v West Indies
2019–20
West Indies v Australia
Australia v Sri Lanka
West Indies v India
Pakistan v England (in Malaysia)
New Zealand v South Africa
Statistics Most runs PlayerTeamRuns Alyssa Healy 18 18 1000 58.82 Tammy Beaumont 21 20 945 47.25 Smriti Mandhana 16 16 911 65.07 Stafanie Taylor 21 19 843 49.58 Sophie Devine 18 18 812 54.13Source: ESPNcricinfo
Most wickets PlayerTeam Sana Mir 15 15 35 13.74 Jess Jonassen 15 15 30 15.83 Megan Schutt 16 16 30 17.20 Poonam Yadav 18 18 29 22.82 Afy Fletcher 20 20 29 26.00Source: ESPNcricinfo
References
External links Series home at ESPN Cricinfo