Women's T20 World Cup 2023: 5 Biggest upsets in tournament's history

The Women's T20 World Cup 2023 is all set to commence on February 10, and it has all the makings of a blockbuster event. It will be the first time South Africa hosts a senior ICC tournament since 2007. Australia are the undisputed No. 1 team in the world and the defending champions have a good chance of completing a hat-trick of World Cups in this format. 

Upsets are a major part of every global tournament and the recent Men's T20 World Cup was a good example. The likes of Ireland, Netherlands and Zimbabwe among others, caused major upsets. Even the Women's event has witnessed several upsets in the past seven editions. in a recent warm-up game ahead of the marque event, Ireland defeated Australia which acted as a confidence booster for them going into the main tournament.

Here's a look at 5 of the biggest upsets in the history of the Women's T20 World Cup:

5. India vs Sri Lanka 2014

Sri Lanka had defeated India in a couple of T20s just before the World Cup, but to do it at a major event was quite the shock and it dented India’s World Cup campaign as it was their opening fixture. Sri Lanka won the toss and asked the opposition to bowl first in Sylhet, Bangladesh.

All the Indian bowlers chipped in with wickets throughout the innings and kept the flow of runs in check, but the Islanders managed to get to a competitive score of 128 thanks to Chamari Athapaththu (43) and Eshani Lokusuriyage (34). It wasn’t the flattest of surfaces, but one would have expected the Indian lineup to do the job. 

However, it wasn’t the case as India always found themselves behind the asking rate, thanks to some excellent bowling. It looked like Shikha Pandey and Harmanpreet Kaur could have won the game for India, but the latter's wicket put a significant break on the scoring rate and the former's wicket in the 17th over was the final nail in the coffin. Udeshika Prabodhani was adjudged the Player of the Match for her impressive figures of 2/9 from four overs.