The Women’s Cricket World Cup is now underway; not that too many know about it. There are no ads bleeding blue, no major discussions about who are favourites to win, no great obsessive interest in every player, every run score and wicket taken. However, the women's event has come a long way in recent times – in terms of popularity, viewership, player popularity and more.
The Google Doodle announced the start of the event on 4 March 2022. Eight teams are participating in this world cup – South Africa, West Indies, Australia, England, India, Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh. The event is being held at the Bay Oval Stadium in New Zealand.
This is the limited overs event or the 50 per side one day international competition that is held every few years. The first ever women’s cricket world cup was held in 1973 when England won the title on points. The second such event in 1978 was won by Australia. The honours have been shared between these two teams 10 times out of 11. The exception was the 2000 world cup that New Zealand had won. This is the 12th edition of the women's ODI cricket world cup
The defending champions are England who had won by nine runs in their final against India in 2017. The Indian women had reached the finals once before in 2005 when the Australia managed to win by a big margin of 98 runs at the Centurion stadium. This time around, the women are led by Mithali Raj who is both the ODI and the test captain for the Indian women.
The first match was between hosts New Zealand and West Indies which the West Indian women won by just three runs. Making 259/9 in their 50 overs, they the West Indian women successfully defended their total by getting the kiwis all out with just a ball to spare. The second match saw South Africa taking on Bangladesh. Making 207 in 49.5 overs, the South African women won by restricting the Bangladeshi women to 175 all out in 49.3 overs. At the time of writing this, the Australian women are facing off against the English women. Making 310/3 in their 50 overs, the Australians have set England a stiff target.
India take on arch rivals Pakistan in their first game on Sunday 2 March 2022. So far the two teams have gone head to head only twice before and in each of those instances, the Indian women had emerged victorious. The odds are stacked in favour of the Indian women this time around as well, with an 85% win probability predicted for India. the match will start at 6.30 AM IST on Sunday morning. After this, the next Indian match will be against New Zealand on Thursday 10th March.
The league matches will go on till 27 March after which, based on points, there will be two semifinals on 30th and 31st of March followed by the finals on 3 April 2022. Matches can be live steamed on Disney + Hotstar.
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