by bigfluffylemon » Thu Feb 27, 2020 10:32 pm
This format's way better than the 'everyone plays everyone' nonsense of the men's world cup. It's a world cup. Every match should count. I like the short sharp nature - two weeks only, rather than an interminably long group stage that everyone gets bored of by the end.
I feel that the ICC was so burned by India tanking out early in 2007 that they've done everything they can to rig the format to ensure the big teams get lots of games and can recover if they stuff up. It's insane that there were over 50 matches in the men's 50 over cup, but only 10 teams. 4 pools of 4, then QF, SF and F for 16 teams is only 31 games, but then there might not be an India-Pakistan, or England-Australia game. Heaven forbid.
One quirk of this women's T20 format though, which is a result of there being an odd number of teams in each pool, is that the timetable of matches is a bit skewed between teams. South Africa played their first match as the opener of group B on Sunday, then have had a five day break until their second game today. Australia will play their 4th game tomorrow, when South Africa will just have completed their second, then assuming Australia make the semis, they'll have a five day break until the semi, while South Africa play 3 games in 5 days (and 4 in 7 if they make the semi). Up to a point it can't be helped, as with an odd number one team has to sit out each round.
England-Pakistan is shaping up to be a crucial game. If England lose, they can only qualify in a very unlikely set of circumstances involving winning their final game v West Indies, and either Thailand beating either South Africa or Pakistan, or Pakistan and West Indies both beating South Africa. In either case England will then have to squeeze through on NRR in a two or even three-way points tie. If England win, Pakistan will need to beat South Africa to progress (I'm assuming both South Africa and Pakistan will beat Thailand), or hope West Indies beat England.