The ICC Women\u2019s World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012 kicks off on Wednesday in Galle, with host Sri Lanka taking on South Africa in the opening match at Galle International Cricket Stadium.
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This Group B fixture will be followed by what is expected to be a cracker of a match between the previous event\u2019s losing finalist New Zealand and pre-tournament favourite the West Indies. The first match starts at 0930 while the second match begins at 1330 (local time).
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Eight women’s teams will be competing in the tournament and they have been split into two groups. Group A includes defending champion Australia, 2009 winner England, and traditional rivals India and Pakistan, who go head to head a day after the equivalent men\u2019s Super Eight stage fixture on 1 October at 0930.
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Group B comprises home team Sri Lanka as well as two-time runner-up New Zealand, South Africa, and the West Indies, the team that won the ICC Women\u2019s World Cup Qualifier 2011 in Dhaka last year.
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The top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals, which will be played on the same day and at the same venue as the men\u2019s semi-finals in Colombo on 4 and 5 October, with the final to be played ahead of the men\u2019s final at R.Premadasa Stadium on 7 October.
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The semi-finalists from this event will qualify for the ICC Women\u2019s World Twenty20 Bangladesh 2014. These four sides will be joined by the winners of the two play-off matches between the bottom four teams, which will be played at NCC and Moors Cricket Ground, respectively, in Colombo on Wednesday 3 October.
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With Bangladesh also qualifying for the 2014 event as the host country, the final place in the eight-team event will be decided in qualifying tournament to be played next year.
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The entry to women\u2019s matches in Galle is free of charge.
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Sri Lanka captain Shashikala Siriwardene, previewing the tournament, said: \u201cWe\u2019re definitely looking forward to the home support. It\u2019s exciting to have a world event like the ICC World Twenty20 in your home country. We expect that people will come out and support us like they have backed the men\u2019s team.\u201d
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Looking ahead to her side\u2019s opening match against South Africa, Siriwardene said: \u201cWe know each other\u2019s game well and the team is looking forward to the match.\u201d
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South Africa captain Mignon du Preez believed that facing the host side in the opening match will be tricky.
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\u201cIt will definitely be challenging, but for them it\u2019s in their home ground so they\u2019re under a lot more pressure because they have to perform in front of their home audience. But coming here, we are the underdogs, so we don\u2019t have anything to lose and we can go out there and have some fun,\u201d she said.
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Du Preez pointed out that anything can happen in the shortest version of the event. \u201cThe game is very short and every ball has its own chance. So, the important thing is to concentrate for 240 balls, because there\u2019s no time to catch up later on in the twenty20 format,\u201d added the 23-year wicketkeeper-batter from Pretoria.
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New Zealand\u2019s captain Suzie Bates, who belted six sixes and 19 fours in a swashbuckling 105-ball 168 against Pakistan in the ICC Women\u2019s World Cup 2009 in Sydney, admitted that it was crucial that her team arrived early to get accustomed to the conditions and prepare for the tournament.
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\u201cWe\u2019re here to go all the way,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cThe team is confident ahead of the tournament and the newly launched Reliance ICC Women\u2019s T20I Player Rankings shows the team\u2019s strength in the shortest format of the game with three players inside in the top 20 batters and another two listed in the top 20 bowlers.
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\u201cIt\u2019s nice to compare individual rankings, and it gives us confidence. We don\u2019t have too many players in the 50-over rankings, so it looks like twenty20 is our game.\u201d
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West Indies\u2019 captain Merissa Aguilleira said her side was also feeling confident ahead of the tournament, after winning the final match in the five-match series against England. \u201cComing into here and winning that last game was a big plus for us. We need to carry on with the momentum as we have nothing to lose.\u201d
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With three players in the top 20 batters of the Reliance ICC Women\u2019s T20I Player Rankings, including 2011\u2019s ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year Stafanie Taylor, Aguilleira hinted at some aggressive batting from her team.
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\u201cFrom what I can see, the ball really comes onto the bat pretty well so we\u2019ll definitely be looking to hit some big scores,\u201d she warned.
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Australia\u2019s captain Jodie Fields said her side was ready to defend the title it won in Barbados in 2010. \u201cBeing the defending champions definitely brings some pressure but also adds to our drive and focus as we want to bring the title home again,\u201d she said.
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Australia plays its first match on Wednesday 27 September against India, and the 28-year-old from Queensland admitted that it would be a tough match.
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\u201cWe have trained well in the past few days and had a good hit out against the West Indies (in the warm-up match) which has set us up well for our first match against India. We know what India is like, it is always a formidable opponent and one we can never take lightly.
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\u201cIndia will be used to these (types of) wickets and we are going to have to be on our game from the start if we want to be competitive against them.\u201d
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England captain Charlotte Edwards said her team was eager to make up for its disappointing performance at the last event, where, as defending champion, the team was knocked out in the group stage.
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“That\u2019s cricket,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve played cricket for a number of years and, as I\u2019ve said to the girls, I\u2019ve had many highs and lows. That was a huge low, but it is not something I think too much about in terms of thinking about what went wrong.
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\u201cThat was the turning point for us as a team, so I only see it as a positive now. We\u2019ve moved on and it\u2019s good that it hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n
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By Indian Sports News Network<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The ICC Women\u2019s World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012 kicks off on Wednesday in Galle, with host Sri Lanka taking on South Africa in the opening match at Galle International Cricket Stadium. This Group B fixture will be followed by what is expected to be a cracker of a match between the previous event\u2019s losing finalist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[6277],"class_list":["post-10301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-isn-front-stories","tag-icc-womens-world-twenty20"],"yoast_head":"\n