ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier to open with Pakistan, Bangladesh match on November 21

Qualifier 2021 will open with the match between Pakistan and Bangladesh. Zimbabwe will host the ten-team tournament with all the 29 matches scheduled to be played in Harare from November 21 to December 5.

Team are divided into two groups of five and they will play each other once in the round robin league. Group A consists of West Indies, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Papua New Guinea and Netherlands, while Group B will feature Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Zimbabwe and USA.

Top three teams from both the groups will then qualify for the Super Six stages. There will be no knock out stage and the top three sides at the end of the tournament will qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 in New Zealand. They will join the already qualified five countries – New Zealand (the hosts), England, Australia, South Africa and India - for the global event that's scheduled to be played from March next year.

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Apart from the Pakistan and Bangladesh match at the Old Hararians Club, the opening day will also see West Indies take on Papua New Guinea at the Sunrise Cricket Club, Ireland, Netherlands encounter at the Takashinga Cricket Club and the hosts Zimbabwe’s clash against Thailand at the Harare Sports Club.

The three qualifying teams as well as the next two placed sides will also feature in the next cycle of ICC Women’s ODI Championship with the top five teams from the last time as the governing body has decided to increase the number of teams in the championship from eight to ten.

Sri Lanka were originally expected to host the competition in June-July 2020 before it was postponed to July this year due to the pandemic. However, with teams reeling from the effects of the pandemic and being unable to play games, it was pushed back to December 2021. Due to the high volume of COVID-19 cases in the island nation, the tournament was awarded to Zimbabwe.

Fixtures:

Nov 21 Bangladesh v Pakistan
Thailand v Zimbabwe
West Indies v PNG
Ireland v Netherlands

Nov 23 West Indies v Ireland
Netherlands v Sri Lanka
Pakistan v Thailand
Bangladesh v USA

Nov 25 Ireland v Sri Lanka
Bangladesh v Thailand
PNG v Netherlands
Zimbabwe vs USA

Nov 27 Sri Lanka v West Indies
Ireland v PNG
Pakistan v Zimbabwe
USA v Thailand

Nov 29 Bangladesh v Zimbabwe
Pakistan v USA
West Indies v Netherlands
Sri Lanka v PNG

Dec 1 Super Six Match 1, Match 2, Match 3
Dec 3 Super Six Match 4, Match 5, Match 6
Dec 5 Super Six Match 7, Match 8, Match 9

*All matches to be played from 9:30 AM local time