Women’s T20 World Cup on Saturday – Shabnim Ismail’s return, reruns of 2024 semis and some rain

Who’s playing whom?

Here comes the first triple-header of the Women’s T20 World Cup. The day starts with Ireland vs Scotland, who made it to this tournament through the qualifiers earlier this year. Ireland will be playing their fifth T20 World Cup but are yet to win a game after 17 attempts, and this might be their best chance. Scotland have featured in just one edition (2024) and they had taken down Ireland when they last met, in the qualifiers. Saturday’s game begins at 9.30am GMT in Manchester.

Old Trafford will also host the second game of the day, the blockbuster between Australia and South Africa, starting at 1.30pm GMT. Australia might be the top-ranked team (no surprises there). Still, South Africa will remember better than anyone how they had registered a clinical win against Australia in the semi-final of the 2024 event. This will be Australia Women’s first white-ball international at Old Trafford, and their first there since the 1976 Test.

In the evening, the action moves to Southampton where defending champions New Zealand take on 2016 champions West Indies, from 5.30pm GMT. These are the other semi-finalists from 2024 and both teams have a point to prove. New Zealand arrive under their new captain Melie Kerr and their campaign is largely being painted as the farewell of their trio of Sophie Devine, Suzie Bates and Lea Tahuhu. West Indies will be led by the experienced Hayley Matthews and have a couple of more legends too, in Stafanie Taylor and Deandra Dottin.

Team news and likely XIs

Ireland (probable XI): 1 Amy Hunter (wk), 2 Alana Dalzell, 3 Gaby Lewis (capt), 4 Orla Prendergast, 5 Leah Paul, 6 Alice Tector, 7 Louise Little, 8 Arlene Kelly, 9 Ava Canning, 10 Lara McBride, 11 Cara Murray/Aimee Maguire

Scotland’s Abtaha Maqsood has been ruled out of the tournament after sustaining a fracture during their warm-up against Pakistan earlier this week. Right-arm quick Hannah Rainey has replaced her in the squad.

Scotland (probable XI): 1 Darcey Carter, 2 Katherine Fraser, 3 Kathryn Bryce (capt), 4 Sarah Bryce (wk), 5 Ailsa Lister, 6 Kirstie Gordon, 7 Megan McColl, 8 Priyanaz Chatterji, 9 Olivia Bell, 10 Chloe Abel, 11 Maisie Maceira/Gabriella Fontenla

Phoebe Litchfield missed Australia’s two recent warm-up games with a quad issue. But she trained “really well” according to captain Molineux on Friday and should be good to go for their opener.

Australia (probable XI): 1 Beth Mooney (wk), 2 Georgia Voll, 3 Phoebe Litchfield, 4 Ellyse Perry, 5 Ash Gardner, 6 Annabel Sutherland/Tahlia McGrath, 7 Sophie Molineux (capt), 8 Georgia Wareham/Alana King/Grace Harris, 9 Nicola Carey, 10 Kim Garth, 11 Megan Schutt

For South Africa, Marizanne Kapp returned to action in the warm-ups after being out of action for three months with an illness. Shabnim Ismail could easily make the XI after unretiring from internationals, but it may not be as straightforward for Dane van Niekerk.

South Africa (probable XI): 1 Laura Wolvaardt (capt), 2 Sune Luus, 3 Tazmin Brits/Dane van Niekerk, 4 Annerie Dercksen, 5 Marizanne Kapp, 6 Chloe Tryon, 7 Kayla Reyneke/Nadine de Klerk, 8 Sinalo Jafta, 9 Ayabonga Khaka, 10 Shabnim Ismail, 11 Nonkululeko Mlaba

New Zealand (probable XI): 1 Suzie Bates, 2 Isabella Gaze (wk), 3 Melie Kerr (capt), 4 Sophie Devine, 5 Brooke Halliday, 6 Maddy Green, 7 Izzy Sharp, 8 Jess Kerr/Rosemary Mair, 9 Nensi Patel, 10 Lea Tahuhu, 11 Bree Illing

West Indies suffered a big blow with an injury to their hard-hitting allrounder and vice-captain Chinelle Henry, who hurt herself while fielding in the warm-ups and is unlikely for Saturday. How they will that allrounder’s spot is the big question for West Indies.

West Indies (probable XI): 1 Hayley Matthews (capt), 2 Deandra Dottin, 3 Qiana Joseph, 4 Stafanie Taylor, 5 Jahzara Claxton, 6 Aaliyah Alleyne, 7 Jannillea Glasgow, 8 Shawnisha Hector, 9 Mandy Mangru/Shemaine Campbell (wk), 10 Afy Fletcher/Zaida James, 11 Karishma Ramharack

Players to watch

Scotland’s 21-year-old allrounder Darcey Carter played the last T20 World Cup but didn’t have a great outing with either bat or ball. She comes into this tournament as Scotland’s top-scorer since that World Cup, with six half-centuries that helped her average over 30. Opening the batting, she was the top-scorer in the warm-up wins against Netherlands and Pakistan, and also helped Lancashire to double trophy success last season.

Her last international was against Australia – the final of the T20 World Cup 2023 – when she had breached the 120kmh barrier, and she returns to South African colours to take on the same rivals. Shabnim Ismail has reversed her intentional retirement and the feisty fast bowler will run in with the new ball in hand and her trademark aggression. Ismail and Marizanne Kapp opening the bowling together again might be one of the best sights of this World Cup.

Suzie Bates endured a horrible ODI World Cup last year, scored just 18 runs in her final ODI series and comes into her farewell tournament with a poor run of scores. She must be itching to bow out with some big scores and her T20I record against West Indies could fire her up. She has scored more runs than anyone against West Indies with five half-centuries, and she also has 14 wickets against them to average under 14 with an economy rate of just over six an over.

Weather and conditions

Manchester saw a fair bit of rain in the lead up to Saturday which forced all teams but South Africa to train indoors on Friday. The forecast for Saturday also shows rain, but more before 10am than after although it will remain overcast with some wind and the temperatures well under 20 degrees Celsius. That should allow the games to be completed, even if truncated. The pitch wore a green tinge as it may not have seen much of the sun this week.

Southampton was dry in comparison on Friday, after several days of very wet weather in the week. Saturday evening should be sunny with highs of 23 degrees, which should make for a lovely evening of cricket.

Quotes

“The belief is a lot higher than a couple of years ago. The last T20 World Cup was obviously new and everything was new for us so it probably took us a little bit longer to sort out and figure out how to balance becoming on the new stage so quickly as a Scottish team.”
Scotland quick Chloe Abel

“There’s been some massive changes in our whole programme in terms of when I first started, it was amateur and now we’re looking to be fully professional. So being able to train every day, not have to work jobs, things like that over the last number of years has really changed that and that’s no doubt had an impact on our performances on the pitch.”
Ireland captain Gaby Lewis

“We never really went into the tournament as any kind of favourites. It was more like dark horse, who could win a couple of games. But this time, especially back at home, it feels like a sense that people want us to go all the way and to win the World Cup. It’s also given the group a sense of belief that if all these people are saying we can actually win the comp, then surely we can.”
South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt feels they can go all the way this time

“It gives you a bit of freedom. We’re not out here to defend anything, we’re not being hunted. I suppose we’re out there to go and get it. The group’s in a great place to be able to go out there and run towards whatever’s in front of us now, rather than just trying to hold on to what we have, because we don’t hold either of them. Hopefully this really frees us up, and we can find a new level.”
Australia captain Sophie Molineux on how they are neither ODI nor T20 champions coming into this tournament

Vishal Dikshit is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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