CWG Women’s Cricket Competition 2022 Stats Review: Australia’s utter dominance, India’s heartbreak in the finals, and other stats

Australia Women’s Cricket team clinched the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games Competition 2022 by defeating India by just nine runs in the finals in Birmingham. For the first time in the history of the multi-sport quadrennial event, women’s cricket as well as the T20 format made its debut. Notably, the List A men’s tournament was included in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

This year, eight teams participated in 16 matches, which were played in a single round-robin format followed by playoffs, with all the games taking place at Edgbaston in Birmingham. While Australia claimed the gold medal, India took the silver and New Zealand defeated England to grab the bronze.

Beth Mooney ended the tournament as the highest run-getter as she scored 179 runs in five innings at an average of 44.75 and a strike rate of 133.58 with two half-centuries, while India’s Renuka Singh delivered splendid spells throughout the competition, and ended up with the most wickets to her name. She took 11 wickets at a solid average of just 9.45 and an economy rate of 5.47 with two four-wicket hauls.

Meg Lanning added another trophy to her cabinet as she led the Aussies to yet another major title after already winning three T20 World Cups in 2014, 2018, and 2020. She also skippered Australia to the 50-overs World Cup triumph, which was held earlier this year in New Zealand.

Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers from the Commonwealth Games Women’s Cricket Competition 2022:

 23 – Smriti Mandhana smashed the fastest half-century (23 balls) for India in T20Is. She achieved the feat by scoring 61 off just 32 against England and bettered her own record (24 deliveries against New Zealand in 2019)

83 – South Africa registered the largest victory in terms of balls remaining against a full-member side in T20Is. They defeated Sri Lanka with 83 balls to spare. New Zealand and Australia both beat Ireland and West Indies respectively with 75 balls to spare previously.

1 – For the first time, South Africa won a T20 international by a margin of ten wickets. They beat Sri Lanka while chasing a target of just 47.

51 – Mandhana has now smacked the highest individual score (51) for India (men’s and women’s) in the powerplay. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul managed to amass 50 runs against New Zealand in 2020 and Scotland in 2022 respectively.

46 – Sri Lanka suffered their lowest total of 46 in T20 internationals. The Asian side got bowled out for the score in the 11^th match against South Africa. Their previous lowest was 57 against Bangladesh in 2012.

141* – Tahlia McGrath and Beth Mooney scripted their highest third-wicket partnership of 141* in the format. They achieved the feat against Pakistan in the ninth match of the competition.

10 – India have now inflicted defeat on Pakistan in ten out of the 12 T20 internationals.

11 – Renuka Singh has now taken the most wickets (11) for India in a T20I series or tournament. Poonam Yadav snared ten scalps each in the Women’s Twenty20 Asia Cup in 2018 and T20 WC in 2020. Rajeshwari Gayakwad also took as many wickets in Australia Tri-Nation Series in 2020.

2 – Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues scripted the second-highest third-wicket partnership (96) for their side. They shared the stand against the Aussies in the final. Veda Krishnamurthy and Rodrigues top the list with their 117-run stand against West Indies in 2019.

3/16 – Ashleigh Gardner recorded her best bowling figures of 3/16 in T20Is, which came against India in the Finals. Her previous best was 3/22, against England in 2018.

4 – Australia have now won four successive major tournaments. They clinched the T20 World Cups in 2018 and 2020 and also the 50-overs World Cup this year.

8 – Shafali Verma and Mandhana have now shared the most 50-plus partnerships (8) for India. Mandhana also shares seven half-century stands each with Harmanpreet and Mithali Raj.

2 – India achieved their second-largest victory in terms of runs in WT20Is. They defeated Barbados by a massive margin of 100 runs. The Women in Blue beat Malaysia by 142 runs in the year 2018.

3 – India succumbed to their third straight final loss in a major tournament, after coming second-best against England in the 2017 World Cup and against Australia in the 2020 T20 World Cup.