Australia became the first team to qualify for the semi-finals, after winning their first two matches in Group A.[5]New Zealand's win over Sri Lanka in the second round of matches ensured their own and England's progression to the semi-finals.[6]India completed the semi-final line-up, beating Barbados in their final group match.[7] India won the first semi-final, beating England by 4 runs.[8] Australia won the second semi-final, beating New Zealand by 5 wickets.[9]
New Zealand claimed the bronze medal after beating England by 8 wickets in the Bronze Medal Match.[10] Australia claimed the gold medal, with India taking silver, after winning the Gold Medal Match by 9 runs.[11] Australian batter Beth Mooney was the leading run-scorer in the tournament, with 179 runs, whilst India's Renuka Singh was the leading wicket-taker, with 11 wickets.[12][13]
Schedule
The competition schedule for the cricket tournament was as follows:[14]
The Commonwealth Games 2022 was held in Birmingham, England, from 28 July to 9 August and had over 5,000 athletes representing 72
Commonwealth Games Associations taking part.[18] Under Commonwealth Games rules, all core Commonwealth sports must be hosted but additional sports may be added by the local organising committee. In November 2018, the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) made a joint bid for a women's Twenty20 tournament to be included.[19] In August 2019, the Commonwealth Games Federation announced that the bid had been successful after a vote of all 72 Commonwealth Games Associations[20] with women's cricket being added to the 2022 programme along with beach volleyball and para table tennis.[21] The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), as custodian of the Laws of Cricket, welcomed the move and hoped it would eventually lead to cricket's inclusion in the 2028 Summer Olympics.[22]
In November 2020, the ICC announced the qualification process for the 2022 Commonwealth Games tournament.[23] England automatically qualified as the hosts, along with the six highest ranked sides as of 1 April 2021 as direct qualifiers.[24] One further place was awarded to the winners of the 2022 Commonwealth Games Cricket Qualifier.[25]
The allocation of the six direct qualifiers via the
ICC Women's T20I rankings was dependent on the representation of at least four out of the six Commonwealth Games Federation regions (Africa, Americas, Asia, Caribbean, Europe and Oceania).[26] If at least four regions were not represented from those in the top seven, then teams ranked eighth to tenth were the first to be considered to meet the criteria, before filling the remaining allocations from the rankings. Each team can enter a squad of up to 15 athletes.[26]
Nat Sciver named as the team captain in her place.[47]
Group stage
The schedule for the tournament was announced in June 2021,[48][49] with the full list of fixtures being confirmed in November 2021.[50][51] The ICC confirmed that all matches, including those involving Barbados (whose players would usually represent the West Indies), will be designated as Twenty20 Internationals.[52]
^Since the West Indies qualified directly to the event due to being in the top six teams in the Women's T20 rankings, but being ineligible to participate as it constitutes a group of nations and territories that are represented separately in the Commonwealth Games, a qualifier event was scheduled to be held among the teams of nations and territories represented by the West Indies to decide the team to be qualified to the event. Due to the regional qualifier being postponed, Barbados qualified by virtue of being the Twenty20 Blaze defending champions.