Category: Cricket

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Cricket

How a Home World Cup changed the way women’s cricket is perceived

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Photo taken from @englandcricket on Instagram

On Sunday (5th July), the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup finished at Lord’s Cricket Club with Australia winning their 7th title. They faced England who were dominant throughout their home tournament but this appearance in the final was more than just a second place, it changed how Women’s Cricket was perceived in the UK. 

This tournament also secured four countries’ places in the 2028 Summer Olympics in LA – South Africa, India, Australia and Great Britain (taking the place of England). Netherlands also qualified for the first time in this tournament but defending champions New Zealand were eliminated in the Group Stage, with the latter being a shock. 

Australia’s Beth Mooney was revealed as Player of the series with England’s Danni Wyatt-Hodge having the most runs throughout the tournament (302 runs) and Shree Charani from India got the most wickets throughout (14). 

There were seven venues throughout the tournament including the semi-finals at The Oval and the final at Lord’s. The other venues included Edgbaston (Birmingham), County Ground (Bristol), Headingley (Leeds), Old Trafford Cricket Ground (Manchester) and Rose Bowl (Southampton). 

Match 28 between New Zealand and England saw the latter win by 9 wickets with over 21,000 in attendance for the game. Match 29 and 30 was a double header with Bangladesh facing South Africa and India playing against Australia, with 27,163 in attendance across both matches seeing South Africa win by 4 wickets and Australia winning by 6 wickets. 

Semi Final 1 and 2 was another big one for attendance statistics, improving the competition as a whole. Despite it being during a weekday where many people are at work or school, just over 10,000 watched Australia win by 8 wickets against West Indies in just 13 overs. Meanwhile for England vs South Africa, being held on a Thursday night helped attendances as 21,128 fans were in attendance, watching some of the best people in international cricket battle it out for a place in the final. 28,887 fans were in attendance during the final which was the highest attended women’s match held at lord’s and was packed out right until the final bat of the ball. 

In 2026, the WPL season (held in India) featured many of the same players who played throughout the tournament and drew 37.1 million viewers for the Eliminator and Final on television. The tournament saw a number of new fans taste cricket for the first time with 42% of women saying this will be the first time watching the tournament and a quarter of men saying this will be the first time they would be watching any form of women’s cricket (YouGov, 2026). 

England Women’s Cricket has definitely benefited from the recent successes of both the Lionesses and Red Roses with around 27% saying that this is one of the reasons as to why they planned on watching the tournament. 

The opening weekend of the T20 World Cup was the most watched ever of any ICC T20 Women’s Tournament (since being shown on Sky Sports and since 2016) on Sky Sports with 3.3 million viewer hours over a few days of cricket. The opener between England and Sri Lanka drew the highest average on record (393k) for the T20 tournament on Sky Sports with a peak audience of 510k watching England’s first win of the tournament. The opening game was also streamed on Youtube where nearly 75,000 people watched and 90,000 people were on the live blog on Sky Sports. 

The tournament was shown multiple times on the Sky Sports app and free-to-air to make it more accessible for people getting into the sport. With the games only lasting around two and a half hours, there wasn’t a long lasting commitment to people watching, compared to a one day international. 

Women’s Cricket doesn’t stop there for the summer. The first ever test match at Lord’s sees England face India on Friday (10th July) at 11am BST. The Hundred starts on 21st July lasting for an entire month and if you liked some of the players from the tournament, you will more than likely spot them.

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Cricket

WPL: A Successful Competition 

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The Women’s Premier League (WPL) is a T20 competition based in India and founded in 2022, having its first tournament in 2023. This year, Royal Challengers Bengaluru won their second title on Thursday 5th February with both Mumbai Indians and RCB winning two titles each. In the inaugural competition, Mumbai Indians were winners with Delhi Capitals finishing in second. 

The WPL is a five team competition with a round-robin format, followed by playoffs and proves to be successful in the T20 competition, following the likes of The Hundred in the UK and Women’s Big Bash League in Australia. The five teams include Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Giants, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and UP Warriorz of which all five have played in all four versions of the competition. 

In India, the cricket craze was always there but after their win in the ODI World Cup 2025, the rise continued throughout the tournament. The final had close to 31,000 fans in attendance which made it an almost sold out occasion, despite being around an hour drive outside of the city with their home team not qualifying for the final. 

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru won against Delhi Capitals in the final which was held in Vadodara. This was the highest chase that was in the final as Capitals put on a target of 203 runs, with RCB reaching this having two balls remaining and winning by six wickets overall. 

After chasing this target (which was the highest set in a final), the RCB recorded the highest successful run chase in WPL history and was helped with a masterclass from youngster Georgia Voll and Captain Smriti Mandhana (after their 165-run partnership). The side was dominant throughout the whole of the tournament after finishing top of the table and going straight to the final. After hitting 87 runs off 41 balls, she was named Player of the Match with Georgia Voll having a composed 79 runs off 54 balls, helping take the game away from the Delhi Capitals. 

In the fourth edition, there were many players that stood out throughout the tournament including some that did not make the final. The top-scorer and therefore winner of the Orange Cap was Smriti Mandhana from Royal Challengers who put on 377 runs across her games. She recently was announced to join the Manchester Super Giants for this upcoming Hundred tournament in the Summer of 2026. Harmanpreet Kaur finished with the highest average overall (68.40 across the games) and reached a total of 342 runs. Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Grace Harris had the highest strike-rate (178.19) winning the Super Striker of the Season with both Harmanpreet Kaur and Sophie Devine hitting the most sixes (at 13 each). 

The winner of the Purple Cap (the highest wicket-taker) was tied between Gujarat Giants’ Sophie Devine and Delhi Capitals’ Nandani Sharma with 17 wickets each. Amelia Kerr had the best average overall (15.00), with Lauren Bell having the best economy rate (5.52) and Sophie Devine having the best strike-rate (11.58). 

Receiving the Most Valuable Player of the Season and the best game intelligence award was Sophie Devine with the Emerging Player of the Season being rewarded to Nandni Sharma. 

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Cricket

ICC World Cup: Who is taking part and who to watch

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photo taken from @cricketworldcup on instagram

Closing off a summer of intense cricket, India and Sri Lanka host the World Cup with India hosting their fourth and Sri Lanka having their first opportunity.

This is the last time where the tournament will have eight teams with Australia the current defending champions after winning their seventh in 2022. 

How the teams qualified: 

After being the host nation, India automatically qualified with the other 7 teams coming through via championships and qualifiers.

Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka came through via the ICC Women’s Championship which was held between 2022 and 2025. Both Bangladesh and Pakistan came through via the Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers which was held in April this year. 

How the tournament works: 

The group stages will commence on 30th September up until 26th October, with a match everyday to feast your eyes into and watch. Each team will face their oppositions once throughout the competition. 

The top four teams in the group stage will automatically go through to the semi-final stages. These will be held on 29th and 30th October before the final being on 2nd November. 

photo taken from @auswomencricket on instagram

Teams: 

India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Uma Chetry, Renuka Singh Thakur, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Sree Charani, Radha Yadav, Amanjot Kaur, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud.

Australia: Alyssa Healy (c), Darcie Brown, Ash Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham. 

England: Nat Sciver-Brunt (c), Em Arlott, Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Sarah Glenn, Amy Jones, Heather Knight, Emma Lamb, Linsey Smith, Danni Wyatt-Hodge.

New Zealand: Sophie Devine (c), Suzie Bates, Eden Carson, Flora Devonshire, Izzy Gaze, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Bree Illing, Polly Inglis, Bella James, Melie Kerr, Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair, Georgia Plimmer, Lea Tahuhu.

photo taken from @englandcricket on instagram

South Africa: Laura Wolvaardt (c), Ayabonga Khaka, Chloe Tryon, Nadine de Klerk, Marizanne Kapp, Tazmin Brits, Sinalo Jafta, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Annerie Dercksen, Anneke Bosch, Masabata Klaas, Sune Luus, Karabo Meso, Tumi Sekhukhune, Nondumiso Shangase.

Sri Lanka: Chamari Athapaththu (c), Hasini Perera, Vishmi Gunarathne, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Kaveesha Dilhari, Nilakshika Silva, Anushka Sanjeewani, Imesha Dulani, Dewmi Vihanga, Piumi Wathsala, Inoka Ranaweera, Sugandika Dasanayaka, Udeshika Prabodani, Malki Madara, Achini Kulasooriya.

Bangladesh: Nigar Sultana Joty (c), Nahida Akter, Fargana Hoque, Rubya Haider Jhelik, Sharmin Akter Supta, Sobhana Mostary, Ritu Moni, Shorna Akter, Fahima Khatun, Rabeya Khan, Marufa Akter, Fariha Islam Trisna, Shanjida Akther Maghla, Nishita Akter Nishi, Sumaiya Akter

Pakistan: Fatima Sana (c), Muneeba Ali Siddiqui (vc), Aliya Riaz, Diana Baig, Eyman Fatima, Nashra Sundhu, Natalia Parvaiz, Omaima Sohail, Rameen Shamim, Sadaf Shamas, Sadia Iqbal, Shawaal Zulfiqar, Sidra Amin, Sidra Nawaz, Syeda Aroob Shah.

Players to Watch: 

Some players to watch would be Kiwi’ Melie Kerr, England’s Lauren Bell, and India’s Captain Harmanpreet Kaur with many fans already knowing what they are capable of after they played in this year’s The Hundred competition. 

Allrounder Melie Kerr is a star in the making at just 24, carving out her name among legends in the sport. She is the youngest cricketer (male or female) to score a double century in ODI and holds the highest individual score in women’s ODI. 

Lauren Bell had a standout summer with Southern Brave and became the highest wicket-taker with 19 and looks to take her superb summer across to the tournament. 

Harmanpreet Kaur will captain the hosts and is the only Indian Women’s cricketer with more than 3,000 runs in International T20. The All Rounder was with Trent Rockets this summer and looks to bring her see and hit ball approach across to the International side. 

photo taken from @icctrophytour on instagram