Photo credit: Peter Della Penna
USA Women need to finish in the top two at the eight-team tournament to advance to the 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia.
By DreamCricket staff
The USA Women’s journey toward the 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia continues later this month with today’s announcement of the tournament draw for the 2019 Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier in Scotland. The USA Women have been paired with Scotland, Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea in their half of the draw for the tournament which begins on August 31.
USA’s first match is against the tournament hosts Scotland on August 31 at Forfarshire Cricket Club in the Broughty Ferry district of Dundee. USA then plays 24 hours later on September 1 against Bangladesh, the defending champions of the Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier, at Arbroath Cricket Club about 13 miles further northeast along the Scotland coastline from Dundee. After an off day, USA’s final group stage match will be on September 3 against Papua New Guinea at Arbroath CC. All of USA’s matches have a 2 pm local time start, 9 am in New York City.
USA needs to finish in the top two of their group to advance to the tournament semi-final. Should they win a potential semi-final against an opponent from the other half of the draw – Ireland, Thailand, Netherlands or Namibia – then they will make their first ever appearance at the Women’s T20 World Cup. However, USA are still guaranteed a total of five matches with the tournament format calling for a fifth place and seventh place playoff should they fall short of the semi-finals.
In USA’s only match against Scotland, they were defeated by nine wickets in Stirling in 2017 despite a half-century from Shebani Bhaskar. Scotland chased a total of 110 for 2 with 16 balls to spare. USA Women have never played Bangladesh in 20-over cricket, but in their lone encounter in 50-over cricket, Bangladesh defeated USA by nine wickets at the 2011 Women’s World Cup Qualifier in Bangladesh in a match where Bangladesh chased a target of 79 in 18.5 overs after bowling USA out for 78 in 47.3 overs. USA Women have never played Papua New Guinea in any format.
USA also have one warm-up fixture at Arbroath CC before the official start of the event. They will play Thailand on August 29 at 2 pm local time.
USA’s tournament squad has yet to be announced. DreamCricket.com will have coverage of the USA Women team on site in Scotland throughout the tournament.
