West Indies Women will play hosts New Zealand in the opening match of the 2022 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, according to the full updated fixture.
The two sides will kick off the tournament on March 4 at the Bay Oval in Tauranga.
The first set of games will also see two massive rivalries take the centre stage, with Australia taking on England at Seddon Park in Hamilton on March 5 and India facing Pakistan in Tauranga the following day.
A total of 31 games will be played across 31 days, with the eight teams clashing to get their hands on the coveted World Cup trophy. Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Tauranga, and Wellington will be the six cities that will host the tournament.
Australia, England, South Africa and India qualified for the event on the basis of their position in ICC Women’s Championship 2017-20 while New Zealand automatically qualified as they were hosts.
On the basis of the ODI Team Rankings, Bangladesh, Pakistan and West Indies were the final three teams to book their berth for the World Cup after the Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier was called off following the emergence of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus in South Africa.
The Women’s World Cup will be played in the league format, where all eight teams will face each other once, at the end of which the top four teams will qualify for the semi-finals.
The first semi-final will be played at The Basin Reserve in Wellington on March 30 while The Hagley Oval in Christchurch will host the second semi-final (March 31) and the final (April 3). Both the semi-finals and the finals will have a reserve day in place.
CMC
