ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020, Semi-Finals – Statistical Preview

The 2018 finalists Australia Women and England Women made it to the semi-finals of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 but not convincingly. Both the teams lost their first match in the tournament against India Women and South Africa Women respectively. India and South Africa made it to the top four unbeaten and toppers of their respective groups. With the chances of rain on the semi-finals day, India Women and South Africa Women are likely to qualify for the final for the first time ever in the history of T20 World Cups.

All the key stats and numbers ahead of the semi-finals of the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup:

1 – Australia is the only team to qualify for the semi-finals of all the seven editions of the Women’s T20 World Cup. They ended up in the finals in five of their last six appearances in the semi-finals. England has made it to the semi-final 2nd most times. They qualified for the final every time except in the 2010 edition.

2 – Only the 2nd time South Africa made it to the semi-final of the Women’s T20 World Cup. The other instance was during the 2014 edition hosted by Bangladesh. England defeated the South African team in the semi-finals then by 9 wickets.

4-0 – Australia and South Africa faced off four times in the Women’s T20I cricket; all the four meetings came in Women’s T20 World Cups. Australia were victorious in all those matches – by 24 runs in 2009, by 24 runs in 2010, by 6 wickets in 2014 and by 6 wickets in 2016.

5-0 – England won all the five matches against India in the Women’s T20 World Cup. Only Australia (5-1 vs West Indies) and New Zealand (5-0 vs Sri Lanka) won as many as five matches against an opponent in Women’s T20 CWC. All those five wins against India came while chasing a target for England.

9 – Shafali Verma has struck 9 sixes across the four league stage matches in this tournament. These are the joint 2nd most number of sixes by any player in an edition of Women’s T20 World Cup. Harmanpreet Kaur hit a total of 13 sixes in 2018 while Deandra Dottin also struck nine maximums in 2010.

9 – Poonam Yadav, with 9 wickets, stands as the leading wicket-taker of the tournament. These are the joint-most wickets for an Indian in an edition of Women’s T20 World Cup.

23 – Radha Yadav has picked up at least one wicket in each of her last 23 matches in the T20I format. This is the joint-longest streak of picking a wicket in T20Is across Men’s and Women’s cricket. Megan Schutt also had a streak of 23 matches which ended in this World Cup only. Radha is also two wickets away from becoming the youngest player and the 5th Indian to bag 50 wickets in Women’s T20I cricket.

99 – Shabnim Ismail needs one more wicket to become the first South African with 100 wickets in the T20I format. She will also be only the 4th player with 100 T20I wickets in Women’s cricket. Her teammate Sune Luus (47) is three wickets away from becoming the 4th South Africa Woman with 50 T20 wickets.

202 – Natalie Sciver is the leading run-getter of the tournament with 202 runs; the joint-most runs in an edition of Women’s T20 World Cup for England. Sciver has scored three fifties across four matches thus far; the 2nd player after Meg Lanning (in 2014) with three 50+ scores in a Women’s T20 CWC edition.

761 – Shafali Verma begins the knockouts as the No.1 batter in the ICC Women’s T20I rankings. Her rating of 761 is now the highest for an Indian Women in T20I batting rankings surpassing Jemimah Rodrigues’ 742 points during 2019 New Zealand tour. Only five players have registered a higher rating than Shafali in Women’s T20I rankings for batters.

779 – Sophie Ecclestone also achieved the No.1 ranking in ICC Women’s T20I rankings for the bowlers for the first time in this tournament. Her rating of 779 is now the 2nd highest rating ever for any player in the Women’s T20I rankings for bowlers. Megan Schutt had a rating of 805 during Australia Women’s tour of England in 2019.

1967 – Alyssa Healy needs 33 more runs to complete 2000 runs in T20I cricket. Healy will become the 2nd Australian after Meg Lanning and only the 11th Woman to complete 2000 T20I runs when she scores those 33 runs.