CWG Cricket 2022: Best Combined XI of the tournament

The 2022 Commonwealth Games was held in Birmingham between July 28 and August 8, and T20 cricket was part of the mega event for the first time. This was also the first time women’s cricket was featured in the multi-sport event, and it was Australia, who clinched the gold medal. The last time cricket was part of the Commonwealth Games was in 1998 in Malaysia, which was won by South Africa, led by Shaun Pollock.

Australia and New Zealand settled for silver and bronze respectively. In the 2022 edition, eight teams, divided into two groups, took part. Australia, England, India and New Zealand qualified for the semifinals, and it was India, who met Australia for the gold medal match. New Zealand beat the hosts to bag bronze, and India settled for silver after they lost by 9 runs in the final.

Here is the best playing XI of the 2022 Commonwealth Games Cricket:

1. Beth Mooney

The star Australian opener was the leading run-scorer in the tournament with 179 runs in five matches at an average of 44.75 and a strike rate of 133.58, with two fifties. She was also the top scorer for her side in the all-important gold medal match, scoring 61 runs off 41 balls.

Mooney was also the top scorer in the semifinal against New Zealand with a score of 36 runs off 29 balls, chasing 145. Her top score of the tournament came against Pakistan in the last game of the group stage, scoring a splendid 70 runs off 49 balls in a 44-run win.

What stood out about Mooney’s performance in the 2022 Commonwealth Games was that, although she started slowly with a score of 10 and 2 in the first two matches, she made herself count for the crunch matches. Mooney currently stands on top of the list in the ICC Women’s Rankings for batting in T20Is.