James Piechowski takes a look at the group stages of the WWT20, and assesses how each of the top 8 ranked nations fared…

Group B: England find their A-game at last;  Keen defence is key to West Indies progression

Final Qualifying Table

Q = Qualified for semi-final stage

England failed to display a complete performance until their final game. In fact, their opening trio of fixtures were characterised by a solid first half to the match, followed by a somewhat sloppy and disappointing second half. In the first game, after posting 153 they allowed Bangladesh to achieve their highest T20I score of 117, probably 20 too many. And then the chases of relatively low scores against India (91) and West Indies (109) were marred by worrying middle order collapses, which in each case saw England barely scrape home, almost snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

England will need to be more consistent throughout a match if they are to progress further. They will also need to bat appropriately to the situation. Chasing a small target does not mean every batter needs to take the same risks. Instead, the focus should be on fulfilling the player’s clearly defined roles, and building partnerships. England should concentrate on early wickets when bowling as this helps limit the opposition score. Worth mentioning as well is the form, and approach, of Tammy Beaumont – scoring 106 runs at a strike rate of 130, including 16 fours and 3 sixes. Her attitude opening the batting with Edwards is so refreshing that some England fans have already begun to dub the powerplay “Tammy Time”. She has won many fans in this WWT20, journalists and England supporters alike.

It was only in their last match against Pakistan that England produced a complete performance. Knight missed the game due to illness, and England will be desperate for her to return for the semi final. Her solidity with the bat and useful spin bowling could be vital. England drafted in Georgia Elwiss and Laura Marsh to replace Grundy, and both performed well with the ball – they took 5 wickets between them. A superb unbeaten 77* by Edwards was enough to see off a late Pakistani challenge. Marsh is a useful T20 bowler, who had an extraordinary strike rate in the WBBL, taking 9 wickets in only 19 completed overs for Sydney Sixers. England should seriously consider selecting her for the semi-final if the conditions look suitable, which they could well do in Delhi.

Pakistan surpassed the expectations of many, with 2 strong and consistent performances. Their tight bowling was backed up with intelligent batting which was effective enough to see them through. And this was despite the early loss of a key player, Javeria Khan, due to injury. In her stead, Bismah Maroof stepped up. An elegant left hander with a strong bottom hand and extraordinary wide grip in her stance, she stands out in the Pakistan ranks. With the ball, the accurate spin of Anam Amin confounded opposition batters. The side could not sustain their run however, and fell away in the final game against England, which they needed to win to ensure qualification.

West Indies‘ reputation for big hitting with the likes of Deandra Dottin and Stafanie Taylor preceded them. But in the group matches they seemed strangely subdued and unable to hit the ball as cleanly as they can. WI batted first in every group match. However, they both stuck it out in the middle and made important runs, to give defendable totals. Their bowling relied heavily on batters Matthews, Taylor and Dottin, the latter making up for what she lacked in batting form with wicket-taking ability. She has a fast action, hits the pitch hard and can generate pace up to the mid 70s mph. WI also seem to have an uncanny ability to defend a low total. Their bowling has been tight, field placements ideal and they have managed to take wickets at important moments in each game. WI have qualified the hard way, and that often stands a side in good stead going forward.

India – With the ball, all-rounder Harmanpreet Kaur’s unpredictable brand of spin has plenty of variations, and although she can leak runs, batters find it hard to pick her. Consequently, she took wickets, and best of all these were at a high strike rate of 7 wickets in just 11 overs. Anuja Patil and Ekta Bisht provided more economical spin support.

India’s batting was spearheaded by Veda Krishnamurthy, who showed impressive form. She has strong hitting ability, can manoeuvre the field, and was better able to set a decent clip early on than the rest of their top order. The other batters struggled to get going for much of the time, with too few cameo contributions, which ultimately cost India a semi-final berth. The focus seemed to be too much on big hitting and not enough on working the ball into gaps for the batters to get themselves in. Were they too focused on crowd-pleasing, when simply going for the win in the most efficient fashion would have sufficed? Only they will know.

How India dealt with the pressure of playing in front of an expectant home crowd would be key to their chances. This handling of pressure represents the next step up for all the rapidly improving sides like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. When the scales finally fall from the eyes of the viewing public in their home countries, and they realise that they have (and have had, all along!) a women’s team really worth supporting, along will come the next challenge – pressure to perform.

The advantage the more established nations have is that their players are more accustomed to facing the media spotlight. How India froze against Pakistan, and West Indies, under the scrutiny and weight of expectation of a nation, was palpable. Out went the free-flowing run-scoring antics of the Bangladesh game, and instead we saw a nervous, timid India who were clearly overwhelmed by the occasion.

In the first of a series of regular columns,  James Piechowski takes a look at the group stages of the WWT20, and assesses how each of the top 8 ranked nations fared…

Group A: New Zealand power through on cruise control; Australia steady the ship through choppy waters

Final Qualifying Table

Q = Qualified for semi-final stage

New Zealand cruised through to the semi-finals with relatively little trouble. Many eyebrows were raised when they defeated champions Australia comprehensively at Nagpur by six wickets with almost 4 overs to spare. But it’s easy to see why they have been so successful. Their top order is packed with 5 world-class players, all in form and all at the top of their game. Their captain, Suzie Bates, is a shrewd operator who is arguably their best batsman, able to see a game through from start to finish, and offer a few overs of medium pace as well. Rachel Priest’s ability to repeatedly bludgeon the ball to the boundary is perhaps only surpassed in the side by Sophie Devine, another quality big hitter who is also very useful with the ball. She performed superbly in the final game against South Africa, taking 3-17 and scoring 27 from just 17 balls. The experience of Sara McGlashan and flexible inventiveness of Amy Sattherthwaite round out a fine top line batting order. With the ball, they have the in-form off-spinner Leigh Kasperek who, with 9 scalps, currently sits top of the wicket-taking list. This interesting article describes her Scottish roots.

She is ably supported by economical spinners Erin Bermingham and Morna Nielsen. In fact New Zealand’s only weaknesses would appear to be their batting below number 5-6, and the fact that the side have yet to be really tested in this competiton. They have been known to crumble under pressure in the not too distant past, so the other sides still do have a chance against them.

Australia made the semis comfortably enough in the end, but not without a couple of little scares along the way. A shaky start against South Africa was brought under control by the calm and experienced Alex Blackwell and Meg Lanning. But their top order was blown away by New Zealand, and even a fine recovery effort by the world’s premier all-rounder, Ellyse Perry, could not build a total high enough to defend. The performances have stabilised since, and Megan Schutt has emerged as a bowler to watch out for. In Meg Lanning, Australia have arguably the single most impressive player in the women’s game – a batter of superb technical ability, strong mentality and a captain who is always on the ball and rarely misses a trick in the field. The way in which she handles Australia’s bowling options, with regular changes of personnel to prevent the opposition batters becoming set, will be key if they are to progress to the final.

South Africa will be disappointed with their showing at this WWT20. They did not manage to live up to their performance in 2014, in which they reached the semi-finals, despite the visible improvements which have been made within the squad since then. In the final group game, the side gave a very sluggish and nervous chase in response to a modest target from Sri Lanka. They failed to use their feet and leave the crease and instead insisted on playing back and across the line. Their lack of a proactive approach was telling, as they fell 11 runs short in chasing just 114.

Notably, key players Mignon Du Preez, Lizelle Lee, Shabnim Ismail and Dane van Niekerk largely failed to fire together in concert, providing only bitty performances – which is surprising considering how effective they were in the recent series against England. I think SA will have to look at how they structure their team. Against the top sides, they appeared to be a batter short. Considering Kapp and Van Niekerk can bowl their full allocation of 4 overs, yet bat in the top 4, it seems unnecessary to field a further 4 bowlers and an all-rounder as well. Replacing one bowler with either an established batter, or the promising Laura Wolvaardt who was not included in the squad, may have served better. Instead, quality bowlers were left with spare overs, and the batting was caught short.

Jayangani (Chamari Atapattu) stood out as Sri Lanka’s best player. A smooth, fluid batter, she was strong sweeping through the leg side and harsh against width outside off. Unfortunately the rest of the team were too often short in their contributions, which hampered efforts to set challenging targets. And their bowling attack perhaps lacked the consistent threat to take early wickets in response, although was generally economical, with Kumari and Prabhodani looking promising. Weerakkody also has talent, and is a flexible player who can bat and keep wicket well. The improvements made in recent times are quite apparent – the side are now much more competitive all round, and the win against South Africa in their final game showed that.

A review of Group B will follow tomorrow.

The confirmation that there will be no radio coverage of England’s final WWT20 group game today in Chennai, was greeted with disappointment by fans, who have been relying on TMS to follow the tournament in a situation where the host TV broadcaster has declined to offer full coverage.

TMS commentator Charles Dagnall tweeted: “logistics mean we can’t get there” – the TMS “B Team” of which Dagnall is part are 300 miles away in Mohali for the Australia v India men’s game, and will also be covering the West Indies v India women’s match there earlier in the day.

Meanwhile the “A Team” (Aggers & Co.) are well over 1,000 miles away in Delhi, after covering England men’s game v Sri Lanka last night.

As is so often the case, there are no easy answers to these conundrums – calling up a “C Team” for just this one match would have been prohibitively expensive – so it is Twitter and a live scorecard for us today… and the hope that one day there will be a WWT20 where fans all over the world can actually enjoy all the games.

As CRICKETher reported several weeks ago, the ICC’s current inequitable flights policy means that all women’s teams travelled to the World Twenty20 in Economy class, while their male counterparts flew in Business.

All teams, that is, bar Australia. Cricket Australia have confirmed to CRICKETher that the Southern Stars were upgraded to Business class, with CA footing the bill.

Why? A CA spokesman told CRICKETher: “We have been working on a number of ways to further professionalise the women’s game, including increasing pay for elite cricketers and providing greater on and off-field opportunities for our players through initiatives such as the Women’s Big Bash League. Addressing discrepancies between the class of air travel for male and female cricketers is another important issue that we have been committed to resolving.”

Interestingly, CRICKETher has also ascertained that an equitable flights policy does apply while teams are in India, with both men and women flying in Economy in order to travel between tournament fixtures.  This is the same policy used during the Australian domestic season, when both male and female state teams fly to away matches in Economy class.

As in most other areas, then, it appears that CA are leading the way in terms of parity for their female cricketers. The question is, will other cricket boards – and of course the ICC – now follow suit?

On yesterday’s radio broadcast, the TMS team repeatedly stated that England had “all-but” qualified for the semi-finals.

We considered otherwise, but started to wonder if we were wrong until TMS’s Dan Norcross backed us up:

England play Pakistan in their final group match on Sunday afternoon; but before that West Indies play India in the morning. (UK times.)

Currently, England have 6 points, West Indies 4 and Pakistan 4, all with one match to play; so if West Indies and Pakistan win their final games, both will have 6 points along with England (who in this scenario have lost their final match to Pakistan) and so Net Run Rate will be brought to bear.

The first thing to remember is that if  West Indies lose to India, it is all moot as far as England are concerned – they will have qualified regardless of what happens against Pakistan.

(Pakistan meanwhile would then need to beat England to qualify alongside them.)

But if West Indies do indeed beat India, then that is where it gets interesting from an England perspective.

Currently the NRRs stand as follows:

1. West Indies: +0.87
2. England: +0.75
3. Pakistan: +0.33

West Indies having won their final match will have improved their NRR, so it is all down to England v Pakistan.

If England win, they are through; but it isn’t quite so simple for Pakistan. Because they trail England in NRR – they need to win by… how much?

Well, NRR can be a complicated beast to pin down, but here is one permutation:

If Pakistan bat first and make 120, England need to score 108 to qualify despite losing the match; but if they made just 107 their NRR would slip below Pakistan’s and they would go out.

Would we put money on this? No! Is it “plausible”? Absolutely! And anyone who therefore thinks England have already “all but” qualified needs to think again!

The BBC have today confirmed to CRICKETher that they are committed to providing ball-by-ball coverage of the inaugural Women’s Cricket Super League, due to take place this August.

TMS producer Adam Mountford has told CRICKETher that the BBC are currently in negotiations with the ECB regarding the precise number of matches which will be broadcast, with exact details to be provided in due course.

The BBC have in recent years shown a broad commitment to showcasing the women’s game, with coverage of every ball of the last four women’s Ashes series, and being the only UK news organisation to have provided coverage of the last three women’s World Cups.

With Sky having not yet committed to showing any of the tournament, this makes the BBC the first confirmed Super League broadcaster – undoubtedly very welcome news indeed.

The WWT20 gets underway on Tuesday, with hosts India taking on qualifiers Bangladesh in Bangalore. But who will be lifting the trophy two-and-a-half weeks later in Kolkata?

If you’ve got smart money, it is probably on Australia, who have won the last 3 WWT20 tournaments, not to mention the World Cup in 2013 as well. Plus, if you were a conspiracy theorist, you’d have to think that there was a good reason why both “Meg Lanning” and “Machine” begin with the letter “M” – it just can’t be a coincidence!

However, recent form might suggest that the era of Australian dominance could be coming to an end. The table below shows the win percentages in the past 12 months for the top teams.

There is little room for doubt – New Zealand are the “form” team at the moment – and this is backed up by the more sophisticated rankings maintained by Women’s Cricket Blog.

The White Ferns recent success isn’t based on a single player either. In that past year they have had match-winning performances with the bat from Suzie Bates (54 off 53 v Australia); Rachel Priest (60 off 34 v India); and Sophie Devine (70 off 22 (sic!!) v India); and whilst her recent international form hasn’t been great, you can’t count out Sara McGlashan either, who hit 366 runs in WBBL, including a top knock of 79*, and has a highest international score of 84.

Their bowling is arguably their weakness, but whilst we might have said a year ago that women’s T20 was less of a batsman’s game than the men’s equivalent, if anyone is in a position now to prove that has changed it is New Zealand, and that is why they are our tip for the trophy in 2016.

Agree? Disagree? Vote now! (And Have Your Say below!)

CRICKETher understands that Kia are set to be announced as the sponsor of the up-coming Women’s Cricket Super League, which will be known as the Kia Super League, or KSL for short.

The Korean car manufacturer already sponsor the England women’s team, providing the players with cricket-white Kia Sportage’s as part of the deal.

Kia believe that the women’s game provides an ideal synergy with their reach into the so-called “soccer-mom” market; and this extended deal can be considered something of a coup for the ECB in an increasingly challenging sponsorship environment.

The announcement by the ICC of further expanded TV coverage of the Women’s World T20 in India is good news… except if you are an England fan.

The ICC has confirmed that 13 matches, including the semi-finals and final, will now be broadcast, and all 10 teams will have at least one televised game. (Previously just 10 broadcast matches had been promised.)

However, there is disappointment for England fans.

Sky had previously said that all of England’s group matches would be shown:

But it now seems that only the group games against Bangladesh (on Thursday 17th March) and India (on Tuesday 22 March) will be televised. (Sky’s updated schedule confirms this here.)

The full revised TV schedule is below, but check with your broadcaster to see which ones they are actually transmitting!

(Sky don’t appear to be showing all of them: Ireland’s only broadcast game – against Australia – is one missing from Sky’s schedule, for example.)

• Tuesday 15 March – India v Bangladesh
• Thursday 17 March – England v Bangladesh
• Saturday 19 March – India v Pakistan
• Monday 21 March – Australia v New Zealand
• Tuesday 22 March – England v India
• Thursday 24 March – Australia v Sri Lanka
• Thursday 24 March – Pakistan v Bangladesh
• Saturday 26 March – Australia v Ireland
• Sunday 27 March – West Indies v India
• Monday 28 March – South Africa v Sri Lanka
• Wednesday 30 March – Semi-Final 1
• Thursday 31 March – Semi-Final 2
• Sunday 3 April – Final

Berkshire have appointed a new coaching team for 2016, led by ex England Test batsman Aftab Habib, assisted by two former Berkshire players: Emma Boswell and Hannah Burr. CRICKETher met up with them this week to find out more…

New Head Coach Aftab Habib played two Tests for England in 1999; and after a successful county cricket career which included a Championship title with Leicestershire and two 1,000-run seasons, he made the move into coaching. He has previously run Women’s & Girls’ development in Buckinghamshire, and more recently coached the Hong Kong national side.

Assistant Coach Emma Boswell meanwhile is recently retired from the Royal Navy, having spent much of the past few years beneath the waves in a nuclear submarine; but still finding time to skipper the Navy’s women’s cricket team. She and fellow Assistant Coach Hannah Burr played together at Berkshire in the late 90s and early 00s, and will now team up again, working with both the 1st XI and the age-group squads.

Aftab Habib, Hannah Burr and Emma Boswell Meet to Plot Berkshire’s Season

Berkshire’s senior squad is likely to have a familiar look to it this season. Though sadly Aussie overseas Crinny Hall won’t be returning, the core of the team which came 4th in last years Women’s County Championship are expected to be reunited for the 2016 campaign.

Beyond the immediate present, Berkshire are looking to build a more sustainable foundation for the women’s game in the county, hoping to emulate some of the success which Sussex have had in this regard under the leadership of Charlotte Burton.

One target is to broaden the base of the women’s game, to the point where there is a genuinely competitive “selection” process for the squads at both senior and age-ground level. This will partly be achieved by strengthening links between the county and the clubs in the area which run girls’ sections.

Another objective is to create the next generation of female coaches for the women’s game, by encouraging all the players in the age-group squads to begin the process of earning their badges by working with the age-groups below them, with the hopes that the next cohort of players graduating from the U19s will have already have achieved their Level 1 and be well on their way to Level 2.

Of course, Berkshire don’t have the luxuries available to some of their rivals with First Class men’s county facilities behind them; but you only have to look at the fate of relegated Nottinghamshire and Lancashire last season to see that sometimes that’s not everything – something that Berkshire’s new team are determined to prove once again in 2016.