Photo Credit: Oisin Keniry
Ireland Women’s Head Coach Ed Joyce believes his squad has benefited greatly from last month’s tour of Zimbabwe and will head to this month’s 50-over World Cup Qualifier with a fresh determination to qualify for the biggest tournament in women’s cricket. Meanwhile two Irish players have been shortlisted for a global Player of the Month award.
With the International Cricket Council (ICC) having recently released the schedule for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Global Qualifier, Cricket Ireland has confirmed two warm-up matches for the Ireland Women’s squad ahead of the tournament, with a bilateral 50-over warm-up match with Thailand being followed by an official Qualifier warm-up match against Pakistan.
The ICC Women’s World Cup Global Qualifier
Ten teams will compete for three places at the 2022 Women’s Cricket World Cup, set to be held in New Zealand.
The Qualifier groups are:
- Group A: West Indies, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Netherlands
- Group B: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Zimbabwe, USA
Ireland Women’s playing schedule is:
- 16 November: Ireland Women v Thailand Women (warm-up match, Old Georgians Sports Club; start 9.30am)
- 19 November: Ireland Women v Pakistan Women (warm-up match, Harare Sports Club; start 9.30am)
- 21 November: Ireland Women v Netherlands Women (World Cup Qualifier Match 1, Takashinga Cricket Club; start 9.30am)
- 23 November: Ireland Women v West Indies Women (World Cup Qualifier Match 2, Old Hararians Sports Club; start 9.30am)
- 25 November: Ireland Women v Sri Lanka Women (World Cup Qualifier Match 3, Harare Sports Club; start 9.30am)
- 27 November: Ireland Women v Papua New Guinea Women (World Cup Qualifier Match 4, Harare Sports Club; start 9.30am)
* All times referenced are local to Zimbabwe
The top three teams from each group go to the Super 6 stage, with group stage points carrying over to the next phase. From there, the top three after the Super 6 stage will qualify for the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022 being held in New Zealand next year, along with the hosts, Australia, England, South Africa and India, who have directly qualified for the event.
As a bonus, the top five teams will also qualify for the next edition of the ICC Women’s Championship, which is expanding from eight teams to 10.
The ICC will livestream the matches on ICC.tv, as well as livescoring and providing a range of digital content.
If successful, this will be the first time that Ireland Women have played in a 50-over Cricket World Cup since 2005
While the squad for the Ireland Women’s World Cup Qualifier campaign is set to be announced early next week, Head Coach Ed Joyce gave an assessment of the last 12 months for his squad, and an update on their preparations.
He said:
“I feel we are in a good place with our cricket and preparations for the Qualifier. Obviously you would rather go into a tournament like this with more competitive cricket under your belt, but last month’s tour of Zimbabwe served as a great boost in skills, confidence and cohesiveness of the squad.”
“At the outset of that tour we stated it was a chance to get a feel for conditions in Zimbabwe ahead of the Qualifier – but the most pleasing aspect for me was that the series provided so much more than just an acclimatisation opportunity.”
“Our batters were outstanding up against a good Zimbabwean bowling attack – Gaby [Lewis] and Leah [Paul] leading from the top with back-to-back century opening stands, Gaby’s three consecutive half-centuries, Dels [Laura Delany] hitting two fifties, including her highest ODI score of 88, and Amy Hunter’s remarkable unbeaten century were definitely individual highlights worth mentioning. Just as important as these individual performances to me, though, was the manner in which the whole batting unit worked together as a collective – with partnerships being the key to building big totals. The squad hasn’t played a lot of 50-over cricket in the last few months, so to perform as they did was a credit to the players.”
“Saying that, the story of that tour was more than just the batting. The bowlers also stepped up, with our leg-spinners Cara Murray and Celeste Raack finishing highest and second-highest wicket-takers of the series. It was also a pleasure to give out five caps to players making their ODI debuts – the touring experience for these players in particular is a valuable developmental opportunity and part of better understanding what international cricket is about. These were some of the notable takeaways of the tour from my perspective and we’ll be looking to continue this momentum going into the Qualifier,”
“The squad we will take to the upcoming event is being finalised this week, but in advance of that announcement we have been undertaking skills training with the players at North County and utilising the fitness facilities at the Sport Ireland Institute. It’s pleasing to say that we have no reported fitness concerns at present, with several players recovering well from injuries picked up during the home season.”
“It’s good to have confirmed two high-quality opponents for warm-up matches just after we arrive, then we are into the tournament proper with a determination to give a positive account of ourselves on the world stage.”
